' I 



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vX 








THE 



TEMPLE OF TRUTH, 



SCIENCE OF EVER-PROGRESSIVE KNOWLEDGE 



CONTAINING 



THE FOUNDATION AND ELEMENTS OF A SYSTEM FOE ARRIVING 
AT ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY IN ALL THINGS; 



A MESSAGE OF NEVER-ENDING JOY, AND THE ABIDING HERALD 

OP BETTER TIMES TO ALL MEN OP A GOOD-WILL, OR 

DESIROUS OP ACQUIRING IT.— Rev. XIV, '6. 



BY 



PETER KAUFMANN 



'Try me."— Bayard, the Knight. 



*Arv.2q 



St- 



CINCINNATI: 

PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH AND GERMAN, BY 

TRUMAN & SPOFFORD, AND EGGERS & WILDE. 
CANTON, . , 

BY THE AUTHOR. 
1858 



% A* 



■ ^ ■ :■ 



TO THE PUBLIC 



The author deems it proper, hereby to impart to the public at large the following infor- 
mation : 

1.) He publishes this work, and will (God permitting), in due time, follow it up with 
a series of volumes, all designed to benefit, man (the individual), the nation and the race, 
not only by the facts and truths therein disclosed and inculcated ; but also by applying the 
net proceeds resulting from the sale thereof entirely to the benefit of man and the relief of 
suffering humanity. 

2.) Among other suitable means for effecting that object, the establishment of a MODEL 
institution of education, more comprehensive, liberal and humanitary, than any yet 
existing, claims a prominent place of the first rank, amid his cherished wishes, to be actual- 
ized by a co-operating association, as soon as the means are in reach. 

3.) Hence, every person purchasing the book, add furnishing additionally the names of 
two other persons taking it, thereby secures to himself and family a, perpetual right of mem- 
bership in such educational association, as likewise an incipient pre-emption claim to an 
equitable share of the benefits resulting from, and connected with, the practical realization 
of the all-sided model school, and the beneficent institutions of every description, that 
form necessary parts of its multiform branches. 

4.) The names of all who purchase the book, will, therefore, be noted upon suitable lists ; 
so will be also those, who shall take especial pains in promoting the aims of the book, and 
in expanding and enlarging the cycle of its readers ; all of which lists will be carefully 
preserved in the archives of the contemplated institution. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by 

PETER KAUFMANN, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. 



Stereotyped by Hills, O'Driscoll & Co., 
141 Main St., Cincinnati 



E. MORGAN & SONS, printers k binders. 
No. Ill Main St., Cincinnati. 



PKEFACE. 



In the within volume, we hereby present to our NUMEROUS friends and the truth' 
seeking part of the world at large, the condensed result of our most earnest and active re- 
search after ABSOLUTE TRUTH, prosecuted during a period of thinking existence, and 
amidst an interior and exterior experience, infinitely copious and multiform in 'variega- 
tion, in extent, and amount, of nearly half a- century in duration. We feel great 
gratification in the possession of the immovable conviction, that we have neither lived, 
suffered, nor labored in vain, but have at last, in their fullness, found the foundation, 
elements, and skeleton theory of a system of absolute and unassailable truth, 
requiring now only for its extraneous actualization the noble spirited action, of clear 
heads and strong hearts. We consider that herein we have furnished not only what 
Archimedes demanded: the fulcrum whereon to place his lever; but also the lever 
itself, by the application of which, the mind of the age, panting for an all-sided and 
enduring progress, may henceforth lift the sluggish state of the world from its hinges 
of stagnancy, as likewise out of the vicious circle of motion whereinto, as it were, by 
an infernal magic, its movements seem, until now, to have charmedly been chained, up 
and upon a higher platform, where, it may forever move and rise " onward and up- 
ward." In surveying the line of concatenated thought, running from the beginning, 
to the closing sentence of this volume, the reader will perceive, that analysis forms the 
leading and most prominent feature in the whole of the mental operations that constitute 
the work. And, as the process of analysis, wherever duly consummated, is known and 
acknowledged, by all competent thinkers, to be the very essence and substance of what is 
called proof 'or demonstration : every idea exhibited in the book, must carry the impress 
of its irresistible self-evidence along with itself, until shown, that the analysis in its case, 
was performed defectively. 

In casting our ken upon the past and present destiny of the human race, we discover 
the same to be, and. always to have been, one of a mixed nature, combined of good and 
evil ingredients ; but suffering and misery, in frightful shapes, to preponderate vastly, 
at all times and everywhere, over happiness and true prosperity. Now, as every 
thing, as an effect, has a cause that constitutes its origin, the intellect is necessitated to 
endeavor to discover this grand cause of the general mischief. In examining then, as 
we have done (in Chapter XXII, on Dialectics, etc., and elsewhere), the primary 
sources and conditions of all human knowledge and existence, we have found the same 
to be but three in number, namely : Nature, Reason, and Religion. In nature man 
physically exists, and is surrounded by it on all sides ; by and with reason, or his think- 
ing intellect, he knows that, which he knows, of nature and himself, whatever the kind 
or amount of such knowledge may be ; and as nature and the individualized reason of 
the single man, exist conjointly with all beings extant, in a physical (by space), and 
an intellectual infinity (by the First Cause's omnipresent and eternal mind): man's rea- 
son can only know its own, nature's, and all other beings' and things' true being, nature, 
and condition, when clearly perceiving the absolute relation of each, to all-surround- 
ing infinity, and the laws that constitute its eternal statutes. This knowledge of 
infinity or eternity, being the focus or center, where all individual reason and intellect 
converges, is called Religion, and constitutes the science or philosophy of eternity. 

Having thus proven (on page 181, $8), that nature, reason, and religion, are equally 
the voice, a revelation of, and an emanation from, God, their common source and origin ; 
we also proved that their nature and character is one of pure benignity, like absolute 

iii 



17 PREFACE. 

goodness, their divine cause, itself. Now, we are forced to further press the inquiry, 
by asking ourselves the question : in what mode and manner does it happen, and how 
does man contrive, that from these THREE c?«;m<?&/-BENIGNANT sources, he gathers 
a crop so immeasurably richer in MISERY and SUFFERINGS, than in true HAP- 
PINESS and JOY 1 A brief, analytical statement of man's past and present mode of exis- 
tence, and manner and kind of pursuits, will, if not the full answer to the query itself, at 
least furnish us the requisite materials for framing it in a satisfactory form. Man, every 
where, at all times, and in all things, is absolutely dependent on TRUTH, that 
is, on his knowledge of, or insight into, the same. He brings not one single ray of 
such knowledge with him, when, as a helpless babe, entering existence. He finds the 
race he belongs to, split into nations, peoples, tribes, clans, castes, etc., all more or less un- 
friendly toward one another, not unfrequently destroying each other like ferocious beasts. 
He finds these nations and peoples again split up into numberless parties, factions, and 
sects of a political, ecclesiastical, scientific, or mixed nature, with correspondingly 
organized machineries to preserve and perpetuate their existence, and extend and fortify 
their power ; warring hardly less fiercely with one another, than nations engaged in 
hostile conflict. And, finally, this state of split interests and actual antagonism, 
prevails again, more or less, between all the families and individuals, composing each 
of these larger sects or parties. Now, as this state of things, is radically and diametri- 
cally, just as much opposed to pure nature and true reason, as to real religion ; which all 
teach and preach to man peace, union 9 and harmony with himself and all crea- 
tion: nations, sects, families, and individuals are thereby actually, more or less, at war, with 
one, the other, or both, or all three, of these divine (their only), sources of knowledge 
and existence ; and, as far as they surrender their inmost light to this state of chaotic 
anarchy, become incapable of perceiving and comprehending the higher light, streaming 
conjointly from these trinal divine fountains. Hence, neither nations nor even indi- 
viduals have, until now, understood the infinitely high AIM and purpose of their 
existence and destination, and have, therefore, as a general rule, each pursued such 
self chosen ENDS and objects, as temporal interest, desire, whim, and chance threw 
in their way, or circumstances and unbending necessity forced upon them. As thereby 
they become necessarily estranged from nature, reason, and living religion, committing 
sins and transgressions against the laws of each; these infractions of divine and eternal 
institutions are punished by an amount of misery and suffering corresponding to the 
turpitude and amount of the criminal action. And thus we can comprehend how man, 
by an abuse and perversion of things, forces, and institutions originally good and 
divine, can, from ignorance, imbecility, and frivolity draw poison, pain, and death, where 
his wisdom finds only honey, joy, and life. 

In Chapter XXIII, we demonstrate apodictically, that the conjoint voices of reason, 
nature, and religion, unanimously declare: " All-sided PERFECTION," for- 
evermore ascending * onward and upward,' to be marts and humanity's 
PARAMOUNT and SUPREME aim, purpose, or end of existence. As soon as he as- 
pires after this aim, he enters into incipient harmony with reason, nature, and God ; and the 
evils theretofore pressing upon him, begin to diminish and disappear. But aspiring 
only singly and by disunited endeavors, the high aim can be reached merely in a subor- 
dinate degree, as likewise, for want of power, in some/<?w> points and directions only; 
but not at all in all others. Hence men have left but one of two alternatives : they must 
either unite and strive with conjointly irresistible POWER after PERFECTION 
and the hearen flowing from it; or remain in their present SPLIT UP condition, 
forever zprey to its WEAKNESS, PAINS, SUFFERINGS, and HORRORS, as inev- 
itable effects of a state, not in HARMONY, and at WAR with, themselves and 
all things else. THE AT j TH OR. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, July 4th, 1858. 



INDEX 



CHAPTER I. 

Page 
Introduction, 9 

CHAPTER II. 
Preliminary Survey of Materials and Methods, 16 

CHAPTER III. 
Terminology, Definitions, Classification, etc., 28 

CHAPTER IV. 
Man, — his Beginning and Awakening, 33 

CHAPTER V. 
Knowledge, after thus Beginning, — what are its Mode of Progress 

and Results ? 38 

CHAPTER VI. 
Examination of the Nature and Foundation of Knowledge, and its 

Ultimate Form in the Mind, 47 

CHAPTER VII. 
What Basis has Language for its alleged Accumulation of Thought? 54 

CHAPTER VIII. 
What is the Nature, Constitution, Structure, Contents, and Source 
of Language ? 68 

CHAPTER IX. 
Analysis of the Nature of Man, — Specifying what it shows, 75 

CHAPTER X. 
Observations and Facts Preparatory to the Analysis of Man's Senses, 82 

CHAPTER XI. 
Analysis of the Impressions upon the Sense of Sight by the Phe- 
nomena of Nature, 91 

CHAPTER XII. 
Analysis of the Impressions from Phenomena upon the sense of 

Hearing, 103 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Analysis of the Impressions from Phenomena upon the Sense of 
Touch, 110 

fv) 



VI INDEX. 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Analysis of the Impressions made by Phenomena upon the Sense of 
Smell, 115 

CHAPTER XV. 
Analysis of the Impressions from Phenomena upon the Sense of 
Taste, 116 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Observations and Facts Preparing the Analysis of the Sense of 
Feeling, 118 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Analysis of the Phenomena of Feeling, Impressed upon Sensation 

as Originating in the Body, 121 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Phenomena Originating in the Sensibility-Sphere of the Soul, 

Constituting the Source of its Joys and Sufferings, 123 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Facts and Reflections Preliminary to the Analysis of Man's Mind, . . 156 

CHAPTER XX. 
Special Analysis of the Mind, Showing its Component Forces, 161 

CHAPTER XXI. 
On Logic, or the Laws Governing the Intellect in Shaping the 
Forms of Truth, 165 

CHAPTER XXII. 
On Dialectics, or the Criterion of the Substance and Essence of 
Truth, 178 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Is there an Inherent Aim or End, Creatively Attached to every 

Man Born into Life ; and if so, which and what is it ? 186 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
What will be the Form and Spirit of the System of Philosophy 

Finally Ruling the Minds of Men ? 204 

CHAPTER XXV. 
Can Ideas and Ideals be Actualized, or what and which, are the 
Principles and Boundaries of Realization, and Laws of Human 
Performing Capacity ? 247 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
Contributive Materials Appertaining to the Method of Making a 
People, a Saviour Nation, or Leading them to Perfection, 268 



THE 



TEMPLE OF TKUTH 



CHAPTER I. 



introduction. 

Friend Header : — 

You and myself are two. Each one of us, and that third one, — . 
our collective neighbor, — yclept Everybody, — can do one or more 
things, — does and has to do, — a great many things. But of all 
things, — that you, myself and he, are able, and have to do, — there 
can (no matter however infinite their number, after comparing them 
all with and among one another), be but one single, solitary thing, 
among the whole heap, which, in common for us all, is the lest, 
most important, and most necessary for every one of us possibly to do. 

2. Now, if it so happens that you can do that best thing for us 
all, — better than myself and our aforenamed neighbor, — it is my, 
and his interest, to come to you and ask you to kindly show us the 
mode and manner how to do it ; as likewise it is yours to teach us 
the same. For, on the one hand, my neighbor and self shall thereby 
gain a great deal of time, and save much labor, toil and material, 
uselessly spent in fruitless experiments ; and you, on the other 
hand, by teaching us to do the thing correctly, will at once gain a 
help, to multiply the doing of that best thing, surpassing your own 
individual capacity of execution, beyond all hope and manner of 
calculation. 

3. If, however, it so happens that not you, or our neighbor, but 
myself understand the doing of that best thing, better than you 
and he, it is your, and his interest to come to me, so as to learn that 

(9) 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

best mode in the doing thereof correctly ; which, successfully 
applied, means infallibly; and in the lapse of the least possible 
time. Is it neither you nor me, but our individualized neighbor, 
who is in possession of the precious secret in question : — we have 
to apply to him, and beg him to put us in possession thereof. 

4. If either of us is actually in possession of that greatest of all 
secrets, which concerns us all alike, it will require but little coaxing 
for inducing us to impart its mysteries to any one desirous of knowing 
them ; since, as above asserted, it is the interest of all of us, that 
its knowledge should be disclosed, and spread far and near, as 
speedily and extensively as ever possible. For, the sooner and 
quicker we multiply the doers of the best thing, by furnishing them 
in the correct knowledge of the sure method, — the infallible tool to 
effect it, — the sooner and quicker that best thing will be created and 
produced in increasing quantities, and finally in abundance ; so that 
the respective share thereof, constituting to each of us our individual 
dividend, will continue to increase, in proportion as our apprentices 
multiply and become journeymen and master loorkmen. 

5. Whatever work a man may do, — be it bodily or mental, — the 
abstract nature of the performance is, in the main, and essentially, 
alike in all cases, and constitutes an act of production, creation or 
architecture, subject to certain conditions, rules or laws of action, 
of which the intellect absolutely must possess the clear insight, to 
insure success. 

6. For when a man designs erecting a building, he knows before- 
hand that, first of all, he must possess the means for doing so. 
These means, upon examination, he will find to be four in number. 
a.) In the first instance, he must have a place upon which to build ; 
erecting thereupon what we term the foundation, b.) Next he 
must have formed a clear conception of the form, size and construc- 
tion of the building itself, termed a definite plan, draft or design. 
c.) He must possess the various materials needed for its execution ; 
and, d,) lastly, have command of the knowledge, skill and force 
requisite for accomplishing the work. If either of these four re- 
quirements be absent, the remaining three will do no good, and 
leave the designed work unaccomplished. 

7. The reflection upon this matter, discloses to man the law gov- 
erning all human action, according to which a definite number of 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

agencies are indispensably required to co-operate in the production 
of any thing whatever. Hence, by this law, to do a work of any 
sort, there must be a worker that understands how to do it ; he 
must have a place where, and the tools wherewith to do it, and must 
have the materials, by, out of, from, or upon which, he is to do it. 

8. In the next place, every work to be so done prescribes also, 
by inherent law, the mode of proceeding in its execution ; namely, 
it can, and must be done only part by part (analytically), and not in 
one simultaneous act, producing at once (synthetically) the whole. 
Hence, the various parts of a work are produced seriatim, in a reg- 
ular line of succession ; or, at any rate, can only thus be practically 
combined, in their due order, time and place, to and into the con- 
templated whole, of which they form the constituent parts. 

9. In conformity with this law, man, whenever and whatever he 
undertakes to build, be it a house of wood, stone or any other ma- 
terial ; be it a machine combined from the various solid and fluid 
substances and forces of nature, or an intellectual system of science 
constructed altogether of abstract fact and pure thought : he is 
compelled in all cases alike, first to provide that place, locality or 
condition which he designs using as its base or foundation. For upon 
such base or foundation alone a superstructure that is real, and not 
fictitious, can firmly stand and repose. A structure that has no 
such foundation of its own, corresponding to its nature, is, in truth, 
a non-reality or non-entity. Where such exist, that existence is 
only appearance or transitory existence, having for a foundation 
something that does not at all belong to them but to the neighbors 
alongside. No sooner does one of these neighbors conclude to 
build his own house anew, and commence tearing down and remove 
the old materials, digging deep into the solid ground, for a firm 
foundation for his new building ; when, all at once, the baseless 
structure, deprived of its foreign support, that until then held it 
securely in its place, with a terrible crash, tumbles down, a shapeless 
heap of useless rubbish. 

10. Assuming our building to be designed for human habitation, 
its entire safety, durability and comfort will, in the first instance, 
depend upon the firmness and immobility of the basis underlying 
the foundation itself; for, as soon as that gives way, the whole su- 
perstructure, no matter how solid, firm, and perfect in appearance, 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

may, in a moment, tumble to the ground and bury its inmates be- 
neath, its ruins. Next, the security and comfortability of the 
intended structure will depend upon the degree of perfection 
inherent in the plan or draft, according to which it is built. For, if 
that is defective, the best workman, using the best materials for 
and in its construction, can not remove, but rather indurate, the 
defects attaching to its immature conception within the mind origin- 
ating the plan ; and such defects are not mended by any basis, no 
matter how firm. Thirdly, if the base is firm and solid, and the 
plan judicious and correct, but the material used in the construction 
be defective and insufficient in quality and amount, although put 
together by the best workman in the best manner, the building may 
have the semblance of comfort, beauty and safety, but its inmates 
have no conviction thereof, and every storm shakes them with 
terror for their lives. 

Lastly, if foundation, plan and material are all good, it yet 
requires that the work should be done by a competent workman, 
in a masterly style ; for only when these four conditions are all 
present and combined, the completed edifice can alone be expected 
to exhibit that degree of perfection wherein security, usefulness, 
comfort, beauty and durability constitute the leading, conjoint 
traits, making it a safe, commodious and pleasant home for its in- 
dwellers, and an attractive and complacent spectacle for the eye of 
the beholder to rest upon. 

11. We selected the simile of a man purporting building him- 
self a house, because we all know that every man needs a house for 
the preservation and comfort of physical life, and for storing away 
all the various articles indispensable to himself and family. Now, 
any man of reflection, at an early day, discovers that, in the same 
way as his outward man needs a house to dwell in, provided with 
places and shelves to preserve his goods and chattels in proper 
order, so as to find them when needed for use, in like manner his 
inner man, the invisible intellect, needs a mental building, where it 
feels that it may dwell in security, comfort and peace, and where, 
into proper places and shelves, it may store away, for proper use 
and application, all the manifold and various thoughts, consisting 
in facts and truths, that constitute the whole of its knowledge of 
every sort. 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

12. For it needs but little meditation to convince ourselves, be- 
yond the possible shadow of a doubt, that knowledge of a certain 
kind, and to a certain amount, is as indispensable to life, its preser- 
vation and comfort, as the things themselves, absolutely needed for 
man's wants. For give man all the things in creation, and deprive 
him of all knowledge of what they are and how to use them, and 
he will be as helpless and destitute as the new born babe, and must 
in the midst of affluence, inevitably perish, if not assisted by others 
that possess the knowledge he lacks. That this is an absolute 
truth, requires for your enduring conviction, — but a single one of 
your looks upon one of those unfortunate idiots, who, with the 
bodily size and physical strength of a grown-up adult, have hardly 
more knowledge than the crawling infant, and therefore with, and 
like it, are as utterly incapable of taking care of themselves. 

13. Like a material house is built up of an indefinite number of 
various parts and substances, differing in inner nature and size, so 
an intellectual building is constructed of a countless number of 
facts and thoughts, representing truths of the most variegated kinds, 
degrees and magnitudes. The knowledge and skill of constructing 
a physical dwelling, we call architecture ; that of erecting a homestead 
for the mind, the art and process of true Seasoning. In 
both cases, the minds of the builders are governed by the same 
laws ; for the laws of thought are laws of nature, as well, and the 
conditions for erecting a solid structure, as above already elucidated, 
apply to each case with equal rigor. 

14. There is, however, one great and notable difference in regard 
to the nature of the two buildings. The earthly house needs not 
to be very large ; for the number of its inhabitants, even when 
increased by transiently visiting guests, is but limited, so that the 
space needed for any emergency is nearly known beforehand, or 
may be supplied by some trifling addition when such case arises. 
At any rate, the building, after once completed, is a stationary 
structure, neither designed, nor of a nature, to grow and expand. 
It is likewise only a temporary abode, intended for a shelter to its 
inmates, during their limited lifetime on earth ; and what may 
become of it after their departure, will but little concern them when 
that momentous hour shall arrive. 

15. The building for the thinking mind is of quite a different 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

character. The mind knows its power and nature to be different 
from, and superior to, all things exteriorly around it. While every- 
thing it perceives out of itself is subject to a perpetual change and 
fluctuation, while its body changes by growth, increase and decrease, 
by health or disease, while even its own power accumulates inces- 
santly by accretion of knowledge from experience and reflection ; 
it knows its consciousness of identity to be unchanged and immuta- 
ble, having brought it up, from infancy, to the very latest moment 
of -its present now, ever and always, during each individual mo- 
ment, constituting a life-line, never so long, knowing itself to be 
and remain itself. This innermost perception of an immutable sta- 
bility, of and within its deepest essence, unaffected and unaffectable, 
by fact without or thought within, constitutes for man that most 
tremendous fact, of which all other facts in the universe are but 
parts, proving to man, beyond reach of doubt or cavil, that, existing 
on earth, he is not of earth ; surrounded by nature, he is not of 
nature ; ushered into and through life by time, he is not of time, 
but is of a substance that has everlasting duration and boundless 
eternity as an inherent attribute of its being, incapable of being 
destroyed by itself or any thing else. 

16. Knowing thus its real character to be, an endless life or im- 
mortality, the mind knows also that all its actions, of every sort, 
must possess enduring consequences. These consequences, as the 
fruits of its accumulating labors and works, whether valuable or 
worthless, it carries along with itself, in its consciousness, from mo- 
ment to moment forever. For its errors, mistakes and misdeeds, as 
well as its truths, fortunate hits and correct actions, contribute to 
make up that experience, disclosing to itself its own nature, its 
laws and those of the universe and its beings ; the conjoint knowl- 
edge of which constitutes that science of all sciences, called wisdom. 

17. Hence the intellectual building which the mind of man 
needs is a temple of truth. As truth has no limits, but forever ex- 
pands by accretion of knowledge, its temple must, of necessity, 
have a basis so solid and vast, rendering the foundation so im- 
movable and firm that the superstructure erected thereon may for- 
ever be extended, without at any period, or by any event, becoming 
subjected to the danger of tumbling into a mass of ruins. For, as 
a real temple of the living truth, it must become the Centre and 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

Reservoir of all truths of any sort, which the whole human race 
upon earth did, does, and shall possess, in the past, present and 
future days of their existence on this planet. A temple of this 
description, as soon as successfully constructed upon the smallest 
scale, will be the common property of mankind ; and all intellects 
that seek, and yearn after, absolute truth, the absence of which they 
have so painfully felt and deplored, will flock around and into it, 
and hail its arrival with unbounded joy. For in it they will dis- 
cover and recognize that great and universal medium for supplying, 
first, the intellectual, next, the psychical, and, finally, when practically 
applied, all other wants of man and humanity, for the arrival of 
which the noblest men of all ages and races have labored, sighed 
and prayed, and do so up to this very day. 

18. If, therefore, this Temple of Teuth is to be in reality what 
its name implies and indicates, it must be a daguerreian imprint of the 
inmost longing of every true man, such as every one would depict 
for, and out of himself, were he in possession of the materials and 
ability requisite for doing so. For every clear-sighted mind knows 
that acting without knowledge constitutes the fool ; acting against it, 
the madman, villain or Jcnave ; but abstinence from all action, until 
possessed of the truth or indubitable knowledge how to act, is the 
criterion of the truly loise man. The wise is, therefore, he, who 
desires knowing the truth, in all cases, that concern him ; for only 
by knowing he can obey, practice, and apply it. 

19. As, from the preceding premises, you, friend reader, are 
fully warranted in drawing the inference that they themselves are 
designed as materials, and that the writer, penning them down, 
intends using them in his present endeavor at constructing so 
sublime and important an edifice as intimated ; it becomes his duty 
to, first, as it were, take you by the hand, leading you around, from 
one place to another, showing you the various materials already 
collected for the purpose ; explaining, next, under what rules and 
regulations these materials are to be obtained and applied ; and 
finally, hereby, most civilly inviting you to honor with your mental, 
most attentive presence, the whole process of construction, from 
beginning to end, whereby you will be enabled to decide for your- 
self, by visible inspection of all the materials used, the mode and 
labor bestowed upon their preparation, and the modus operandi of 



16 THE TEMPLE OP TRUTH. 

their final combination, to the long- wished for whole ; in how far 
we have succeeded in complying with those laws of construction, 
as elucidated in the aforegoing introduction, and especially with its 
paragraphs No.'s 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13 and 17. 

20. If, after you shall thus watch us and our laborious exercises, 
until we have placed the cap-stone into the rounded arch of our 
temple's heaven-touching dome, and then, placing your trembling 
hand upon a heart palpitating with godlike joy, exclaim : "Great 
God, I thank Thee, from the bottom of my soul, that Thou hast 
given a laboring, struggling brother, at last, Thy grace and success 
in a work that comes up to all my prayers, hopes, and expectations !" 
we shall visibly see the commencement of that glorious time, pre- 
dicted by the prophet, when saying : " And they shall teach no 
more, every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 
Know the Lord ! for they shall all know Me, from the least of them 
unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord : for I will forgive their 
iniquity, and will remember their sin no more." Jer. xxxi, 34. 



CHAPTER II. 



PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF MATERIALS AND METHODS. 

1. Our friend reader has seen, when, and where, houses were 
built, the excavation and hauling away of the ground, in digging 
the cellar and providing a solid basis for the foundation ; the carting 
of stone, sand, lime, and water for mortar ; the heavy teams bring- 
ing the ponderous timber, hewed stone, brick, columns of stone or 
iron, and whatever else of material was needed. He has seen the 
laying of the foundation, stone by stone, until reaching the level 
ground. He then beheld the workmen, standing upon that ground, 
progressing a given number of feet perpendicularly upward ; when 
no longer able to reach higher, they had to stop working, until com- 
pleting the now indispensable scaffolding, they were thereby again 
enabled to recommence and prosecute a regular progress. 

2. We call these various proceedings into view, in order thereby 



PRELIMINARY 6URVEY OF MATERIALS, ETC. 17 

to remind our reader that processes mentally analogous to all these, 
are performed in the construction of an intellectual edifice, beside 
various others, not often required in the limited operations of the 
largest material structures. And like the materials used in the 
case of the earthly mansion, are of a heterogeneous appearance and 
nature, brought from various directions, upon divers and different 
vehicles, are worked by tools and processes of their own, to finally 
fit them for occupying their proper place in the grand completed 
whole ; so the materials needed for constructing a living temple for 
the mind of man, are vast in amount, and diversified in kind 
beyond the ordinary conception of his understanding ; they have, 
therefore, to be procured from all parts of creation, wherever found, 
and transported to the use and presence of the intellect by all modes 
and processes of which it has control. Not until we shall have 
practically, in outward procession, exposed them all to his won- 
dering gaze, will the beholder fully comprehend their import, 
variegation and infinite diversity. 

3. a.) For, remember, our Temple of Truth, in the processes of 
its construction, has features in common with the rules that govern 
the erection of the rude log-cabin, the neat fairy cottage, or the 
gorgeous palatial castle ; nay, our temple, immeasurable as it is, 
when completed, may even enter cabin, cottage, or castle, when 
carried thereinto within the heart and mind of a truth-loving man 
or woman. As long as he or she remains there, it will stay and 
with them remain within, but not a moment longer ; for, when- 
ever he or she departs, it has no home either in the one or the other. 

b.) The features it has in common, in construction and use, with 
these finite structures, are these : — Like them, its erection needs 
materials. But their amount borders upon the infinite. To pro- 
cure them, the whole human race, existing from the beginning of 
time, up to the present moment, have all, consciously or uncon- 
sciously, by their experience and labor, willingly or not, each con- 
tributed their share, in some way or other. Like cabin, cottage, or 
castle, our temple requires space, rooms, and shelving, but infinitely 
more than they, c.) For though its regular inhabitant may be but 
one solitary individual man, woman, or family, yet its visitors and 
guests are hosts without limits and number, coming from all parts 



18 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

of time and space, embracing the whole family of mankind, and 
not excluding any part of the boundless domain of creation. 

All of these, with the goods, chattels, implements, and utensils 
needed for their accommodation and entertainment, have a right to 
solicit and demand a resting-place in the great Temple of Truth. 
They all are needed, at one time or other, for one of the guests, for 
one purpose or another ; and, in the shape of a definite thought, rep- 
resenting a fact, an attribute or being, of this wonderful, mysterious 
universe, have an inalienable claim to a regular place on a shelf in 
the great storehouse of being, as, also, a fixed name on its vast 
catalogue of existences. 

4. Now, friend reader, you, our neighbor and myself, all desire, 
and need, the truth, need it fully as much as we need our daily 
bread ; nay, in fact, need it more. For, " knowledge is power " only 
in so far as it is a knowledge of truth. Now the acquisition of this 
knowledge depends upon certain laws and conditions, under the 
operation of which we can alone obtain it. These laws are innate 
in our intellect and engrafted and interwoven into the constitution 
of the universe, and can not be evaded, a.) First ; as we, from 
the moment of our birth, grow older, moment by moment only, 
one single moment following uninterruptedly upon the heel of 
another ; so we can, and do, acquire all our knowledge only piece- 
meal, part- wise, one part or thought after another, that is, in succes- 
sion or time. For the mind of man can only behold and contem- 
plate one thought or subject, in one and the same moment of 
duration, no matter however quick its transition may be upon 
another, b.) The law compelling the mind thus to behold all 
things piecemeal and one after another, produces and constitutes 
that process of minute, separate examination, which is called 
" analysis," whereby the intellect is forced to decompose and dis- 
tribute all things, wherever it can, into their rudimental classes of 
pristine parts, which it terms "elements." 

5. a.) These elements, then, are the primary units out of which 
things are composed. Thus, for instance, we have the ten signs or 
figures in arithmetic, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, out of which all 
possible numbers imaginable are combined. Next, we have the 
signs of a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, 1, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, 



PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF MATERIALS, ETC. 19 

y, z, constituting the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet, 
from which all the words in the language are formed, b.) Men, 
to secure existence, need things, the possession of which they call 
property. Such property has for him, who needs it this very mo- 
ment, an absolute value, but for him who needs it at another or 
a later time, or only contingently, merely a relative one. To repre- 
sent and express that thus unfixed value of property, and facilitate 
its acquisition and exchange, men, by custom, gradually have intro- 
duced, and, by tacit consent, generally accepted, the use of a 
medium, which they term money, and to which, in all countries, 
they affix different modes of subdivision, estimates, and denominations 
of parts, c.) In one thing they are, however, all forced to pursue 
the same course, namely : they must all start from an elementary 
unit, expressing the smallest or rudimentary part of their monetary 
valuation, give it a definite name of its own, and make it the fixed 
and permanent metre of all values, arising from its accumulative 
combination. The monetary units thus proposed and adopted, by 
the nations, peoples, and states on earth, differ in name as well as 
the value thereto attached, from one another, as do likewise the 
names of the various compound values, introduced by all to pro- 
mote convenience, d.) The primary money element adopted in 
our United States, is represented by the well-known coin, termed 
a cent. From it have been combined the compound values of : 2,) 
the 3 cent piece ; 3,) the half dime of 5 cts.; 4,) the dime of 10 
cts.; 5,) the quarter dollar of 25 cts.; 6,) the half dollar of 50 cts.; 
7,) the dollar of 100 cts.; 8,) the quarter eagle of 250 cts.; 9,) the 
half eagle of 500 cts.; 10,) the eagle of 1000 cts.; and, 11,) the 
double eagle of 2000 cts. We might adduce, what are termed 
elements, from other quarters, but the above will amply suffice 
clearly to illustrate another law of the intellect, controlling the opera- 
tion of man's thought and action. 

6. a.) When you go to a printing office^ you may see standing 
before a set of cases, a man flinging the types of ciphers, letters, 
and signs that composed the last form of a book or newspaper, as 
rapidly as your eye can follow, each single piece into a small, sepa- 
rate compartment, belonging exclusively to its own kind or class. 
That operation constitutes analysis or decomposition into ele- 
mentary parts. But, note it well, while it decomposes a whole no 
2 



20 THE TEMPLE OF TEUTH. 

longer useful itself, and so long as thus remaining rendering all its 
parts equally useless, it does not throw matter into pi, disorder, or 
chaos, but places all the elements into that natural position and 
order originally inherent in their design and classification, which 
alone renders them again available for immediate beneficial use. 
For, J,) no sooner do you see the man's last handful of matter 
distributed, when, also, you see him forthwith take hold of his 
composing stick, placing the manuscript you want him to instantly 
print for you, before him, and then, with rapid dexterity, take those 
very types, one by one, precisely in the very order you wrote them 
in letters upon your paper, and in a very brief time, the whole 
matter is composed, and shortly thereafter ready for the press, to 
multiply your manuscript into as many copies as you may desire 
or order, c.) Your manuscript is a whole, combined from a definite 
number of parts, constituting its elements. The printers' com- 
pleted form, composed from single types as its elements, is another 
whole. Before you sat down to write your manuscript, you had 
one main object before your mind, which you desired to accomplish, 
all concentrated in the one main thought or whole. To accomplish 
your object as a unit or whole, all at once, you knew was impossi- 
ble ; so you dissected the various parts of which your main thought 
was composed, by mental analysis, and sitting down, pen in hand, 
you recorded and depicted that very process of the intellect visibly 
upon the paper before you. And when you had done so, all the 
words on your paper, each one representing a part, but their whole 
number combinedly alone as a whole, represented the whole of the 
thought, that urged you to write. When you came to the printer, 
and stated to him what you wanted, you had again to do so part 
by part. He had hardly learnt all the parts when, instantly, he 
fully understood your wlwle thought, his mind combining its parts 
into one whole. That whole he could no more realize at once or as 
a unit, than yourself had been able ; hence he, like you, had to 
produce it part by part, d.) This unbending law, thus compelling 
the mind to construct a whole only in the way of combining its 
parts, to dissect even the units of original ideas born within the 
mind, into their component constituents, before they can be clearly 
understood and externally realized ; this law, and the intellectual op- 
erations under it, are termed synthesis, combination, joining together 



PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF MATERIALS, ETC. 21 

7. It must, however, not be imagined as if analysis and syn- 
thesis were processes that are, and can be, carried on, entirely apart 
and separate one from another. Quite the reverse ; there is not a 
single action of the intellect in which they are not jointly con- 
cerned, with the only difference of changing positions. For when 
that printer analytically decomposes the single types of the old 
form, the last part of the act, placing them each in that place of the 
system of classification, into company with their like, into the 
little pigeon-hole box to which they respectively belong, it is clearly 
an act of synthesis, establishing a well-ordered whole, and that 
whole being a regularly classified system of primary elements. On 
the other hand, that finished handbill, so quickly got up by the 
printer upon the call of our friend, is surely in its present form one 
whole, and thus an act of synthesis. But, at the same time, it not 
only still consists of single parts, but its type-setting and the rest 
of the performances by which it was produced, were clearly done, 
one part after another, or by the method of analysis. 

8. Hence the very process of my present writing is, analysis and 
synthesis continually combined, one alternately leading or following 
the other. The thought attached in my mind to every single word 
here used, is synthesis ; the writing it down, letter by letter, is 
analytic. So is the sense, condensed into every period or paragraph, 
before the mind, synthetic, while the mode of expressing it upon 
paper, or by speech, word by word, succeeding one another, is 
necessarily analytic. The ultimate Idea which this book designs to 
make known and impress upon mankind, is a synthesis in my intel- 
lect ; that synthesis can only be carried out by exhibiting analyti- 
cally, in the completed volume itself, all the several parts in 
succession, in the combination of which its whole consists, b.) The 
insurveyable, magnificently vast plan, existing prior to its creation, 
and ever after, in God's mind, of his glorious universe, is an act of 
synthesis in the Divine intellect ; the realized exhibition of that 
eternal thought, in all its separate, concrete wonders, to the admir- 
ing gaze of reasoning intellect, is its analysis by boundless creative 
power. 

9. It can, therefore, hardly escape the observation of the reflecting, 
that analysis and synthesis are, in reality, but that dualism of one 
unitary law, which, as we progress, we shall find to exist and act, 



£~± THE TEMPLE OP TRUTH. 

in this form throughout all nature and creation, constituting one of 
the cardinal, permanent features of being and existence. 

10. Men, in the earliest ages of the race's existence on earth, by 
coming into close contact with things as yet unknown to them, 
very soon discovered, by painful experience, like the child in its 
first touch of fire at this day, the absolute necessity of a thorough, 
whole or perfect knowledge of things. This, they saw, as we have 
seen, could only be acquired by examining them closely, part by 
part. Driven by this impulse, men launched into all the various 
regions surrounding them, near or far, without or within, according 
to capacity, inclination, occasion, and opportunity, everywhere 
endeavoring to discover the primary elements of the forces, which, 
as causes, produced the effects they saw incessantly arising, some of 
which they desired to prevent and others to promote. 

11. Hence analysis, in the hand of the surgeon, became anatomy ; 
in that of the physician and explorer of nature, physiology and 
chemistry ; with the prier into the inner deep, it became psych- 
ology and metaphysics ; with the traveler on earth or sky, it turned 
into geography and astronomy ; and the close investigation of the 
accurate methods, needed indispensably alike for arriving at indu- 
bitable certainty in all cases and everywhere, has given us, in 
arithmetic, geometry, and algebra, the three branches constituting 
conjointly the vast domain of mathematics, a.) The anatomist 
has analyzed man's body to that extent, so as now not only to 
know a vast, say the largest, number of its constituent parts, the 
mode of their combination, their mechanical structure, construction 
into a whole, and mode of motion and action, but has given us the 
proof thereof, in showing us these discovered separate parts, in the 
shape of bones, cartilage, muscles, fibres, membranes, veins, nerves, 
marrow, brain, blood, gastric and other juices, organs, and functions, 
all defined by separate proper names, b.) The anatomist, next 
turned physiologist, and diving into the dynamics of the invisible 
forces, producing the variegated phenomena in the living organism, 
the mechanical construction and combination of which he had 
learned and now understood by his post mortem dissection, en- 
deavored to discover the nature, number, and kind of these forces, 
the laws governing their operation, as well in their normal state of 
health, as in the abnormal of disease. That he has not labored in 



PRELIMINARY SURVEY OP MATERIALS, ETC. 23 

vain, is proved by a vast array of facts, not confined to man's body 
alone, but scattered over, and culled from, the whole vast realm of 
organized life. The production, circulation, functions, and action of 
the blood and living fluids, the brain and nervous system, the laws 
of generation, nutrition, digestion, and numerous other functions, 
verified as stable facts, defined by specific terms, belong to the 
trophies of this important analysis, c.) The chemist, roused by the 
universal, ever-active laboratory of nature, and its countless wonders, 
after infinite struggles, eventually succeeded in forcing the hidden 
door leading to its concealed secrets, by discovering a number of 
ingredients, resisting his further attempts to analyze or decompose 
them into other forms or constituents. These he terms gases, 
acids, alkalies, oxides, imponderable fluids, primary forces, etc., 
constituting some sixty in number, which he calls, and has a right 
to call, elementary substances, until further discoveries shall enable 
him, by successful decomposition of some thereof, to prove them 
compounds, and thereby, in the end, arrive at the actual number 
and the knowledge of the essence of the elements as they exist in 
nature herself, d.) The psychologist and metaphysician have dived 
into man's invisible inner deep, taking an inventory, as far as able, 
of the forces, functions, action, and phenomena there perceived, 
noting the whole down, as well as they could, by affixing a term 
expressive of every single force or fact, so noticed as a stable, reg- 
ular, and permanent phenomenon, and depositing said term or word, 
from the earliest ages up to this day, upon and into the firm, nev- 
er-shifting super-co-and-sub-ordinated shelf work of classification, 
inherent in that universal treasury and repertory of power and 
knowledge, the language of man, to be forever used by all, accord- 
ing to their best capacity and understanding thereof, e.) The 
explorers of the earth and sky have given us facts and maps of 
each, so interesting, useful, and necessary, that we could and would 
spare the knowledge thereof on no account. The earth is thereby 
for us, as it was for Plato and the thinking ancients, no longer either 
a body of unknown shape and dimensions, or one vast plain, of 
extent and bounds unknown, having a visible opening somewhere 
in the north-west, as an embouchure or orifice, into their bleak 
Orcus and terrific Tartarus. But geography shows us its precise 
form, size, division into water and land, oceans and continents, seas 



24 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

and islands, mountains and plains, and the true locality of the 
various subdivided parts and places of them all, so accurately 
and correctly, that a voyage around the globe, and a visitation to 
all the main parts upon it, a thing never dreamt of in antiquity as 
a mere possibility, has, in our day, even ceased to be considered as 
a performance exceedingly extraordinary. /.) Astronomy, after 
gathering its individual facts, while passing through a long string 
of unprolific centuries, during which, on the main question, it 
groped all the while in the dark, at last discovered the true form 
and mechanism of our own planetary system, and in it the master 
key to unlock the sublime secrets of the starry deep. Since the 
happening of that propitious event, it has analyzed the whole visi- 
ble firmament, all around the globe, mapped and classified all its 
stars and reachable nebulas into galaxies and constellations, and 
designated the whole of them, each by separate name and place. 

12. a.) The infallible results of mathematics, when grappling 
with questions properly belonging to its domain, have disclosed 
and shown to the mind of man a secret of transcending, inestima- 
ble value, by proving, that, wherever the intellect can operate by 
simple elements, like the fixed figures of arithmetic, geometry, and 
algebra, the regular combinations resulting therefrom remain as 
reliable, fixed, unchanged, or certain, as those elements themselves. 
Hence, all that the intellect has to do, to secure equal certainty in 
every other branch of its knowledge, is to ascertain the simple ele- 
ments lying at the bottom of each, and then apply and combine 
them according to the plain and simple methods used in mathe- 
matics, which are nothing else than a reflex of the dynamic 
mechanism of the human intellect itself. For a problem of figures, 
once correctly solved, gives to attempts of resolving it anew, 
throughout all future eternities, only one and the same unchange- 
able result, h.) The historian, finally beginning as early as able, has, 
as far as he could, recorded, in what he deems a concatenated chain, 
all the events coming to his knowledge, of the past most prominent 
actions and doings of the human race, broken into fractions styled 
nations, from remotest antiquity up to our day, making the whole 
a combined narrative, consisting of numberless analytically detached 
parts. 

13. a.) In like manner the same process of analysis has been 



PRELIMINARY SURVEY OP MATERIALS, ETC. 25 

applied, more or less rigidly, to various other branches of knowl- 
edge, too numerous here to detail ; and, in proportion as it has 
been successful in discovering the true elements in any and all, in 
the same degree it has rendered the processes and results thereof 
exact, reliable, and certain, b.) The materials thus gathered from 
countless sources, beginning time out of mind and reaching up to 
our day, are piecemeal, in smaller or larger fractions, scattered in 
the intellects of the cultivated portion of mankind of our age, all 
of which men, making such use and application of certain parts 
thereof, as their circumstances, abilities, inclination, means and in- 
sight permit, c.) But the, by far, largest portion of these materials 
are scattered also piecemeal, one useful portion, wide from another, 
locked and buried up in the millions of more or less, by name or 
contents, entirely unknown volumes, that now form the libraries 
of civilized man. In these volumes there is no doubt much 
trash and rubbish. There can be no doubt, on the other hand, that 
in each there is a grain of gold, perhaps nowhere else to be found ; 
while, if from the whole were sifted out what of useful is to be 
found in all these books, and digested by competent intellects into 
one whole, that wmole would surpass in worth and value all the 
mineral gold found in and upon this globe. There will be a time, 
when modes and means will be reached to drag this vast, now 
latent and useless lying treasure, from its mouldy tomb, again into 
open daylight, to apply it to the advantage and benefit of man. 
Friend reader, every true and good idea, which you know as such 
to be practicable, but for which you find as yet no room, space and 
receptivity prepared in the exterior world, is also one of this living 
gold grains, desirous of birth into actual life. Only be firm and 
patient, its birth-moment will surely in due time arrive. 

14. a.) Man is a dualistic being, divided into the two sexes of 
male and female, each of which forming but one-half of the full 
human being, both absolutely dependent upon one another, so far 
as the perpetuation of their species, its happiness, and the reach of 
the great end of its existence is concerned, b.) The relations in 
which these sexes stand to one another, and to the mysterious 
universe within and around them, arise from their qualities, connec- 
tion, needs, and wants : 1.) As created, limited beings, endowed 
with reason, knowing themselves liable to the laws of nature, 



26 THE TEMPLE OF TKUTH. 

and responsible for their acts to the power that called them into 
being ; 2.) As members of a family, in the bosom of which, they 
form, at one time, the offspring receiving its life from the dualistic 
trunk, and, at another, constitute one-half of that procreative 
trunk itself; 3.) As members of a political community, called a 
state, people, or nation ; 4.) As members of the race to which they 
belong, embracing all the members of the species, now and at 
any time existing upon the planet, collectively termed mankind. 
c.) These total relations of man, place and reveal his nature into 
a fourfold aspect : 1.) As a rational, religious ; 2.) A social, con- 
nubial, procreative ; 3.) A gregative, political, and, 4,) A cosmo- 
politan, universal being. 

15. a.) Man, as will appear in the sequel, is an enveloped epitome 
of indefinite powers, of all which he has not a glimpse of knowl- 
edge when entering existence. These, his gifts and faculties, the 
throng of life around him, wherever he be, drives and compels him 
to apply, whether he understands their right use or not, in the 
multiform cycles of action, necessarily springing from his four 
cardinal relations and their various subdivisions, b.) Growing up 
from ignorant infancy, learning by imitation of examples around, 
and such instruction as the situation affords, a partial knowledge, 
use, and practice of the unknown forces and faculties within and 
without ; he or she, by-and-by, reaches an age of maturity and 
sober reflection, and in one of those solemn hours, where the intel- 
lect clearly sees, and the heart equally deeply feels, their enduring 
relation and duties to an eternal God, to mate, family, country, and 
mankind, they, in most conscientious earnestness, ask themselves : 
1.) "Am I, in naked truth, such and what my God designs and 
wishes me, and my conviction tells me I ought to be, for my God, 
mate, family, country, and race ? 2.) If not, where and what is the 
cause ; is it purely and entirely within me, and thus the default and 
guilt all my own ? Or, 3.) Are not the arrangements of human forces 
in the world around me equally, and in many points, even more 
defective than myself ? 4.) Are science, church, family, state, and 
mankind, with their vast means and powers, actually in the service 
of God and humanity, and, in reality, the heralds and executive 
ministers, as by God required and designed to be, of His boundless 
goodness, mercy, and love, all moving in harmonious union, as 



PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF MATERIALS, ETC. 27 

guided by His eternal wisdom ? Or, 5,) Is it fiction or fact that 
they are all split up into countless fractions, more or less arrayed 
against one another, each pursuing aims, purposes, and objects of 
their own, thereby entirely forgetting that God has revealed one 
only all-embracing purpose, as His object, in creating all men and 
things ? If, then, this is all true," continues the honest man or 
woman, " I, as a single individual, possess, of course, no power to 
change this outward world around me, by my mere wish, or even 
solitary endeavor, all at once to a better state. Nay, I alone, can 
not change it at all, unless I first possess the knowledge hoio to do 
it, then find sincere people ready and willing to help commencing 
doing it, and next, receive God's authority and commission to ac- 
tually undertake doing it; for without it and God's blessing and 
grace, the labor of individual man, in a work so great and infinite, 
can be of no use and avail. Nevertheless I feel that, in a world 
such as it noAv is around me, it is exceedingly difficult, if not almost 
impossible, for the most honestly conscientious man or woman, to 
do God's will at all times, as duty and true interest both require. 
For man is a being that needs company and encouragement" from 
his fellows, and if he has no power to draw them up to his moral 
hight, they usually drag him, more or less, down to the level of their 
own. Still, I will not be discouraged, do the best I can under all 
the circumstances, continue to struggle on, trust in God's mercy 
and love, and, in regard to my own as well as the short-comings 
of the world at large, pray to heaven : ' Father forgive us, for we 
do, in reality, not know what we do /' "* 

16. Seasoning like the above, we occasionally hear expressed, by 
honest souls here and there. Could we read hearts and minds, 
we would see such sentiments entertained in a hundred cases, 
silently, where we now often hardly suspect them. For man wants, 
desires, needs, the true and the good in their fullest form and 
measure, can never be fully satisfied with mere shreds and patches, 
and, therefore, can never cease wishing for the glorious wlwle. But 
that whole must first be possessed as a mental knowledge, before it 
can be realized as an outward fact. For neither man individually, 
nor masses collectively, can do that which they do not understand hoio 

* Mrs. "VV. J. sees here some of her expressed sentiments. 

3 



28 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

to do, no matter what their forces and means may be. Hence we 
would say to all our brothers and sisters, struggling as above : 
11 Cheer up, ye braves, there is a better time fast approaching!" 

17. There has undoubtedly progress been achieved, in this our 
world, of infinite value ; of the main cause and source of which 
we shall duly speak when reaching that point. But what we never 
as yet have had, but do absolutely need, is a scientific system 
OF truths, combining them all into one glorious unity, 
derived from all sources of knowledge that have existences, erected 
upon a basis and constructed after a method, which the logic and 
acumen of neither man, angel, or demon can assail. As soon as 
we hava it, we have therein the knowledge, the platform, and never- 
failing insurance of an everlasting progress, moving eternally " on- 
ward and upward." 



CHAPTER III. 



terminology, definitions, classification, etc. 

To enable the reader to combine the same thought with the 
words we employ, as we do ourselves, it is proper to give here the 
definitions of such, which the context wherein occurring, might 
not at all times render sufficiently definite and clear. 

1. Intellect, Reason, Understanding. — a.) When the term intellect 
is used, we mean the thinking faculty generally, of which reason 
and understanding (also termed common sense) are the two dual- 
istic poles, like male and female, constitute but one full man or 
human being, b.) When we say reason, we denote the intellect as 
exercising that higher function of thinking, wherein the objects of 
contemplation are ideas, or abstract thoughts, and not mere concep- 
tions representing impressions from sensations, c.) When we em- 
ploy understanding (or common sense), we designate that function 
of the intellect, which we elsewhere term the nether pole of rea- 
son, and whose function it is to superintend, with its attention, the 



TERMINOLOGY, DEFINITIONS, CLASSIFICATION, ETC. 29 

operation of the senses, while impressed by phenomena of nature, 
and translating such phenomenal impression into a thought, termed 
conception, report the same to reason, to be used in its higher court 
as a fixed fact of its kind, d.) Hence it will be perceived that 
reason performs the synthetical or combinatory, and understanding the 
analytical or dissevering functions in the operations of thought. 

2. Thought, Idea, Conception. — a.) Thought denotes all objects 
of reflection, whether before the reason or understanding; hence 
ideas and conceptions are equally thoughts, as this is the general or 
class-name of all intellectual objects, b.) An idea is an abstract 
thought, beheld before the forum of reason ; while, c,) a conception 
is a thought evolved by the process of the understanding in trans- 
lating phenomenal impressions, or in analyzing ideas, of which 
conceptions form the parts or constituents. There are, however, 
grand ideas, of which the conceptions, although parts or con- 
stituents of such ideas in that connection, are ideas themselves, 
when separately examined, and may again be analyzed into 
conceptions. 

3. Sensation. — A term which has often been used by writers on 
metaphysical subjects, and seldom clearly and accurately defined, 
we employ to denote the collective phenomenal impressions upon 
the lower pole of the sense of feeling, which we term the " sphere 
of sensation " of the soul. 

4. Boundary of Knoiuledge. — Knowledge, looked upon in the figure 
of bulk or mass, may forever increase, and has, in that sense, no 
definable limits. Knowledge, however, as a definite something, 
existing in the individual mind of man, has two boundaries which 
it never can overstep. On the one hand, all knowledge consisting 
of thoughts, all of which arise from corresponding primary elements, 
the intellect can not dive below or reach behind these elements, as 
they form the pristine, rudimentary material, as to form and sub- 
stance, of all real thought, in any wise possible. Next, all knowl- 
edge exists with the mind, in or within the consciousness of man, 
the extent of which consciousness, in every individual, is duly, but 
undefiningly, known to such individual alone. But be such con- 
sciousness ever so extensive, every man's knowledge exists only 
within, and not outside of, its bounds ; hence no man's knowledge 
can overstep these bounds of consciousness, but remain forever 



30 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

inclosed therein. But as the nature of consciousness is expansive- 
ness itself, it will forever expand, with the expansion of the 
knowledge inducted into it. 

5. If we shall employ elsewhere terms requiring explanation, 
we shall duly define such in their proper place and time. 

6. Knowledge, Science, System. — a.) Knowledge is the pos- 
session, in the mind, of a certain portion or number of correct or 
true thoughts, having such a complete coherent connection between 
themselves, like the links of a chain of a certain extent, whereby 
that chain, being a combined unit, becomes as such, useful and 
applicable for certain practical purposes, as far as it extends. 
Knowledge is, therefore, one and the same thing with true insight 
into, or the correct understanding of, a thing, b.) Science. If this 
chain of knowledge is long enough to circumscribe the bounds of 
the entire sphere to which it belongs, as likewise of the several 
parts of its respective contents, it is termed a science, c.) System. — 
The presence of such science in the mind, perceived in the thoughts 
constituting it by the sight of the intellect, is called its theory ; the 
practical skill, and executed application of the theory, to human 
purposes and use, is termed its practice. Theory and practice com- 
bined, constitute the consummated system. 

7. Consciousness, Fancy, Imagination. — a.) The conscious- 
ness of man is a dualistic unit, having, as it were, two extremes or 
poles. In the nether or finite pole, man perceives, feels, and knows 
himself as a limited being, encased in an organized body, with cir- 
cumscribed form, machinery, forces, and bounds, b.) In the upper 
or spiritual pole, man perceives and knows all the phenomena of 
thought, intellect, and identity in a sphere, having, as it were, 
neither actual nor conceivable bounds. Through the senses of the 
body, man outwardly learns to know an infinity of concrete forms, as 
well as images, devoid of all definite form. Within the upper 
sphere of consciousness he perceives a still larger number of mental 
phenomena, which, as "clearly defined thoughts, have an equally 
definite form, or which, as crude thoughts, or images of the im- 
agination (or more correctly of the fancy, as Ave presently shall 
show), have all possible forms, or are vague notions, devoid of all 
form whatever. To illustrate the point before us somewhat more 
comprehendably, let us use the sensual simile of our earth, as 



TERMINOLOGY, DEFINITIONS, CLASSIFICATION, ETC. 31 

inclosed by the atmosphere and boundless ether filling the universe 
around it. The earth and immediate atmosphere surrounding it, 
contain and present the shape and essence of all concrete and defi- 
nite forms upon it ; the upper, more rarified strata of the atmos- 
phere, running into the gas ocean of ether, contain the essence of 
all possible forms, in a shape devoid of all perceptible form what- 
ever. Now let us apply this image to fancy and imagination : a.) 
Fancy and Imagination are a dualistic, polaric unit, like intellectual 
and sensual consciousness, like reason and understanding, like male 
and female ; being the living vessel or space inclosing, as well as 
the substance itself, of which all forms are made, known and know- 
able to man, as likewise the forms known to him themselves. 
Fancy then is the upper or higher pole, containing all the substance 
and forms appertaining to the intellect and its operations. For the 
clear thought of the keen thinker, the sublime image of the in- 
spired, enchanting poet or artist, with the ravishing vision of the 
extatic enthusiast, are all composed into their respective shapes, 
from that highest of all substances of which pure thoughts are 
made, and of which divine material fancy is the repository, and 
mentally filled with it as the universe with the ocean of ether. 
Hence the intellect itself appears to its own perception as a living 
stationary machinery, posted and acting within the fancy, getting 
not only its materials from it, but using it, as it were, like a reflect- 
ing mirror, to behold the thoughts in, that stand objectively, before 
its meditating vision, while engaged in adjudicating their nature, 
size, and value. While the intellect perceives itself thus as a fixed 
force, it can discover no bounds whatever to fancy, and must regard 
its form as infinite as that of boundless space itself, b.) Imagina- 
tion is thus the nether pole of fancy, being, like the earth and 
proximate atmosphere in our simile, the repository of all concrete 
forms and their elements, as arising from, and connected with, the 
limited sphere of experienced sensation. Thus, then, we may say 
fancy is the imagination of intellect or reason, and imagination is 
the fancy of understanding or common sense. And, in order to 
reduce and thereby simplify somewhat, and thus bring that much 
nearer to a unity, the perplexing nomenclature, until now prevailing 
in the science of anthropology, we may state that fancy and imagi- 
nation not only perform the same office and report the same facts, 



32 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

ascribed to the two poles of consciousness, and are hence identical 
therewith ; hut, also, that what we call recollection and memory are 
functions belonging to this dualistic arsenal of all possible forms, 
and materials ; recollection thus appertaining to fancy, while memory 
attaches to imagination. 

8. a.) In all ages of the world, up to our day, reflecting men 
have quickly discovered that one single thought, one solitary truth, 
one detached portion of knowledge, can do but little good. Heuce, 
at all times, their endeavor to form knowledge into science, by 
arranging its various parts together. These attempts have, how- 
ever, from want of material or ability, not always been successful. 
b.~) But as that which deeply concerns all men, arouses at all times 
the attention of the thoughtful, they have, by observation and 
reflection, collected a vast amount of knowledge of every descrip- 
tion, which, in our day, has accumulated to an extent never before 
known. This huge amount of material is heaped up and accu- 
mulated wherever men turn their eye. Being, however, nowhere 
strung together, but subsisting merely in the shape of detached 
parts, it can not be used ; and, instead of doing men any good, 
it is a hinderance and stumbling-block in their way. It will remain 
thus useless until combined together, and thereby become available 
for the purposes of practical life, c.) The old shelf-work, intro- 
duced as so called systems, in the gray past, answering their pur- 
poses as well as they could, for their time, and awhile thereafter, 
have partly decayed, and partly become too small ; hence useless 
and obsolete, and, therefore, no longer able and fit to accommodate, 
for storing away in proper order and for daily use, the immense new 
material. Hence the want of the age is, and one of its loudest 
spokesmen, Thomas Carlyle, speaks it out, calling for an entire re- 
classification of all things, being " a new theory of the universe." 



HIS BEGINNING AND AWAKENING. 33 



CHAPTER IV. 

MAN HIS BEGINNING AND AWAKENING. 

1. All men know, not from absolute personal recollection, but 
from observing the universal fact around them, never infringed, 
in the experience of the race, that they have been born in a 
state of unconsciousness, weak, feeble, helpless, needing the vigilant 
care of others for a longer period of time than any other being 
within their knowledge. 

2. The first portion of every man's life, no one knows by actual 
knowledge ; for as there is no reminiscence of identity, no recollec- 
tion of incidents, feelings, and perceptions of individual conditions 
and impressions can consciously become possible. The rare mem- 
ory of some few may dimly dive down to single incidents, trans- 
piring near the close of their childhood's second year ; but the 
distinct remembrance of all, dates from a much later period. 

3. But there is a certain, distinct moment in the life of each 
normal child of man, when, for the first time, it discovers, as it 
were, its own self, by perceiving the image of its being, in a thought- 
flash, illuming its inner deep, as separate and different from, and to 
an unknown degree independent of, the whole world around and 
all the beings therein contained. That thought-flash of the mind, 
being a thought, sensation, and vision combined, revealing that as two, 
where before there was but one (as the flickering flame of life in 
the child dimly took itself to be one and the same thing with all 
wherein it existed), is man's first real awakening into being. That 
awakening, constituting the birth of clear and distinct sight of 
self, as being and existing, is the beginning of that infinite fact, 
embracing and ever encycling all other facts, which we denote by 
the term : the consciousness of man. 

4. Consciousness then, is the beginning wherewith man as " a 
selecting principle," now starts really into life ; entering a tour that 
is, in its henceforth endless line, all things that may be named, such 



34 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

as a journey, a struggle, campaign, battle, drama, comedy, tragedy, 
at one point or other of its chain ; and according to the nature of 
its grand result, is either a knowledge of defeat or of victory at its 
final settlement. 

5. a.) Consciousness, even before its full birth, while reposing in 
embryonic, dreamlike slumber, guides the child, by imitation of 
those around it, to use its limbs and forces, quit crawling on the 
floor, learn walking upright, and make other movements like them. 
Nature, also, incites it constantly, in one way or other, to the di- 
versified use of its various senses, until it masters their operation 
and can rely on their action. When consciousness awakes, it dis- 
covers itself as a living vessel, whereinto all the materials, crys- 
tallized from repeated impressions into accepted fact, have been 
collected. For hunger, thirst, or pain, taught it to call loudly for 
help. Its loving, ever-watchful mother, understanding the inar- 
ticulate speech of crying, of her darling, was instantly at its side, 
and tried to discover and appease its wants. It continued its cry- 
ing speech, until the untiring mother had discovered the real cause ; 
and the pacified silence of the child, was its tacit answer that it had 
been understood, b.) Thus, then, already at the very door of life, 
there was a beginning and a way for the child to make itself under- 
stood. By-and-by, when eye and ear became observant, it perceived 
motions of the lips, glances of the eye, and the sounds of speech 
exchanged by the larger human figures around it ; saw all these 
things followed by facts and actions, which forced it to think of the 
transaction, its meaning and cause, thereby became aware of its 
own thinking as a new discovered fact, found that it could make 
its thought and feeling only known by crying, or attracting and 
repelling signs of some sort, and finally clearly discovered that the 
speakers around it were in possession of a more ample means to 
interchange their respective thought, and^hat this medium was 
the speech they used. 

6. From this moment the child became all eye and ear. By 
incessant attention of sight and hearing, it soon learned to combine 
the word and the thing it discovered to denote, as inseparably con- 
nected in its memory ; and, in a brief time, began to use speech 
practically itself. With every progress in its use, it acquired new 
means and new power more rapidly to enlarge its portion already 



MAN — HIS BEGINNING AND AWAKENING. 35 

possessed thereof. Its own thoughts not only thereby became de- 
veloped into clear shapes, but by specific questions, to those near, 
it was enabled to obtain and appropriate their knowledge, to a con- 
siderable degree, upon the subjects of its inquiries. 

7. Before the child knew speech, its thought was an isolated 
hermit, or an untaught deaf mute, chained into a prison, without 
egress or ingress, being separated from all its like by a chasm im- 
possible to traverse. In that dreary solitude thought had no means 
either of growing, or of ascertaining its own nature, extent, and 
size, not being able to say of itself whether it was a single phe- 
nomenon confined in its individual cell, or belonging to a universal 
class, alike, or modifiedly distinct from, similar phenomena, pos- 
sibly existing, or not existing, in the consciousness or cells, of the 
beings around, to all appearance by form similarly constructed to 
its own. 

8. At last thought discovered, to its inexpressible joy, that there 
existed a miraculous bridge, termed language, whereon the impris- 
oning gulf of dreary isolation could by thought be crossed, at option, 
at any time, and pay visits to, and associate with, its fellow thought, 
residing within the cell of consciousness, inhabiting forms not its 
special own. Finding thus the happy means of liberation out 
of its dismal dungeon, thought instantly found out, also, by this 
visit and interchange of thought, first : that the nature of all 
thought, in all the individual cells, was intrinsically in essence 
alike ; next, by trading or exchanging thought, that both parties 
were equally the winners, and each thereby doubling their indi- 
vidual power ; and, finally, that, since every new thought melted 
itself with the previous stock, growing with it into one homoge- 
neous mass, the process, if continued indefinitely, must be an ever 
increasing accretion in thought ; hence, in knowledge and power. 

9. This process of reasoning we do not allege to transpire ex- 
actly in the above form, within the juvenile mind of the tender 
child. But the essence thereof, in one shape and at one time or 
other, can never escape the reflection of man's intellect, be it earlier 
or later, when its attention is drawn to this paramount subject. 
Convinced of the main fact therein contained, the child hastens to 
master language as speedily as able, and appropriate the thoughts 
and knowledge attached to its words and contents, as well as it 



db THE TEMPLE OF TKITTH. 

can. Active, playful, volatile, and restless, as its nimble limbs and 
fluids stamp its age and years, it yet submits, with wonderful pa- 
tience to the dry and wearisome toil, in school or at home, indis- 
pensable to the acquisition of the first elements of regular tuition 
and instruction, as it is more or less clearly conscious of their infi- 
nite importance to its fate and career. 

10. Thus the child grows up into the boy or girl, and they ; in 
their time, become the youth and the maiden. At home, at school, 
and by the condition of things and people in their surrounding 
vicinity, they receive, from early years up, till they arrive at the 
age of mature reflection, instruction and impressions, which con- 
jointly have contributed to fill their minds with such a certain set 
of thoughts, as they, at such time, find in the shape of accepted 
facts, or not doubted truths, exercising a controlling influence over 
the bias of their will and mind, so as to determine the same to 
incline decisively toward one specific direction, and as diametrically 
opposed to its contrary. 

11. If home, school, and neighborhood, have each been in truth, 
what their words imply, then the form of character impressed by 
their conjoint tuition and example, upon our two human beings, the 
one now a vigorous young man, and the other a blooming young 
woman, must, in the main, present the following traits, quali- 
ties, and aims, derived from, and developed by, the several sources 
and causes we shall specify and name : a.) Our young couple do 
each, not only enjoy the possession of a strong bodily constitution 
and vigorous health, but having been duly disciplined by labor, use- 
ful gymnastic exercises, joined to the proper instruction; they possess 
the hnovjledge and have acquired the habits indispensable to pre- 
serving health, b.) In the favorable influences reigning around 
them, their intellects not only have collected knowledge and 
thought, coined and combined into truth and wisdom of the highest 
kind, and, also, the practical skill to apply it to the actual purposes 
of life ; but, from tender intercourse with virtuous parents and 
affectionate association with loving and beloved brothers, sisters, 
friends, and neighbors, their hearts practically know the heavenly 
joys of true religion, the concealed bliss of sincere friendship, and 
the never failing peace flowing from good-will to oil men. c.) Feel- 
ing for one another that mutual true love, springing from the 

3 



MAN — HIS BEGINNING AND AWAKENING. 37 

esteem of each other's qualities and traits of character, our young 
man and woman agree to enter the state of wedlock, and as man 
and wife, to pilgrim the journey of life together, resolving to pur- 
sue conjointly one mutual highest aim embracing the following 
points : — 

12.) a.) To " love their God, as maximum bonum, above all things," 
learn to know and practice His truth, for His glory and the benefit 
of man, as much as ever in their power, in conformity with his 
revealed religion, as taught and practiced by Christ Jesus himself. 
Hence, b,) To " love their neighbor (the race of man), as themselves," 
convinced that, in the simple practice of these two principles, are 
enfolded all individual and family happiness, the true love of 
country or patriotism, and that philanthropy which, if duly prac- 
ticed, would render the whole human race as happy as the angels in 
heaven. 

13. Our young people until now have lived in a small retired 
community, leading a comparatively contented rural life, and 
knowing but little of the evils and sufferings in the world at large. 
Feeling strong in the possession of all kinds of human gifts, forces, 
and acquirements, and deeming a larger cycle of action requisite 
for their beneficent aspirations than their contracted home can offer, 
they conclude to remove into the most crowded vortex of human 
action, a large city, as it would be most likely to give constant em- 
ployment to all their practiced faculties, in the pursuit of their 
high aims, for the cause of truth and the benefit of man. 

14. Until now, our young couple have, as yet, never had occa 
sion to doubt the correctness of those thoughts within their mind, 
upon which they looked as unquestionable facts, or unassailable truths. 
For the people around them were all honest and simple-hearted, using 
the words of language in their true meaning, combining the object and 
thought with the use of each word, in their minds, as in all cases 
language designs and intends ; and, hence, there was always friendly 
discussion and mutual communion of thought among them ; but 
occasion for sophistical cavil and dishonest controversy, consisting 
altogether in " sound and fury," at no time. 

15. Before removing from their old home into their designed 
new sphere of action, our young couple, possessing a high degree of 
intellectual and ethical culture, and understanding language and its 



38 THE TEMPLE OP TRUTH. 

words in their precise meaning and exact import, take an invoice of 
their actual stock of knowledge, embracing its nature, contents, 
diversity, and amount, thereby asking themselves, finally : a.) 
Where does all our knowledge exist? b.) From what quarters does it 
all come f And, c,) in what does it consist ? Which questions they 
answer to themselves briefly, all at once, by the following defini- 
tions embracing that of consciousness : " Consciousness, drawing 
upon nature, reason, and God, as sources of its facts, encycles man's 
entire knowledge, a,) of God, b,) of himself and all his forces, and, 
c,) of all nature and its action upon him ; consisting, so well ex- 
pressed in Emerson's concise definition, in ' a sliding scale, identi- 
fying itself at arte moment with the supreme cause, and the very next 
with the senses of the body.' " 



CHAPTER V. 



KNOWLEDGE, AFTER THUS BEGINNING WHAT ARE ITS MODE 

OF PROGRESS AMD RESULTS ? 

Knowing, in consciousness, that they know, our young thinkers 
are not satisfied with merely stating to themselves this unassailable 
fact, but feel anxious to verify as clearly, by detailed examination, 
its entire main contents, so as to make themselves equally certain 
of the truth of the parts, as they are of the whole ; and to reach 
this purpose find it necessary to ransack and roam through a vast 
field of research. 

1. They have ascertained the primary fact, that knowledge could 
only originate from the combination, accretion, or synthesis of the 
thoughts of one or more men with those of another. The great 
means of effecting this accumulation of thought they discovered to 
be language. And, now, our young friends are casting around to 
see what application and use men have made of this great medium 
for creating knowledge, and with what success and result. Let us 
ourself follow the range these young ramblers would pursue. 

2. The infinity of objects around man, arouses his curiosity. 



KNOWLEDGE, AFTER THUS BEGINNING, ETC. 39 

His constant intercourse with these objects, his needs and wants 
constantly impelling him to their use in one way or another, and 
not always knowing how to do this correctly, he uses speech and 
asks his neighbor if he possesses the knowledge thus needed ? If 
the first man can not answer, he inquires of the second, third, 
fourth, and so on, until he finds the satisfactory answer ; or finding 
no one capable of answering within his reach, gives up asking for the 
present, postponing it to better opportunities. This process of 
asking and answering being incessantly carried on, a.) within the 
minds of men themselves, b.) between man and the mass of men 
around him, and, c.) between all the individuals composing the 
mass, there is forever a mass of thought evolved and accumu- 
lated, the particles of which, as elicited by all the various answers, 
after standing the probing test of experience by application, con- 
solidate themselves into the mass of knowledge admitted in theory 
and practice by all knowing the same, as unquestionable fact. That 
knowledge, thus accumulating in detached particles of simple fact, 
can only become truly useful and available to man, after being, by 
competent minds, digested and compounded into one homogeneous, 
cohesive mass or system,. 

3. Knowing that his own life had a beginning, that he has not 
made himself; seeing that the world he perceives around him, and 
all things it contains, are in a continual state of change and mo- 
tion, wherein new things and beings spring up, and others dissolve 
and disappear ; man soon becomes conscious of the existence of 
one great, mighty law, governing all these never-ending mutations. 
He perceives that every change so effected is a production of some- 
thing else, differing from the thing or state produced. The pro- 
duced thing or changed condition, he calls effect; the known or 
unknown force which produced it, he names cause ; and the insep- 
arable relation, forever and everywhere subsisting between this cause 
and effect, he terms causation or law of causality, and is forced to 
acknowledge it as one universal, all- ruling law, as his, and the 
unbroken experience of all mankind, are conscious of not one single 
inner or outer fact, contravening its despotic sway. After knowing 
a thing itself, man wants to know its cause or origin. Next he 
wants to know the cause of that cause ; then, again, the cause of 
the cause's cause, until he reaches an ultimate cause, at which the 



40 



THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 



law of his intellect forces him to abide as the " Ultima Tliule " of 
research, beyond which none may travel. 

4. Travels, geography, history, and daily observation, inform 
man that there subsists a huge difference between the individuals 
and nations of his race ; a large portion of the latter, on every con- 
tinent of the globe and many of its islands, living in a state of 
barbarism, bordering in its features on the life of the brute. History 
informs us that all nations, past or present, did exist, in their early 
ages, in a condition more or less savage ; and, in casting his eye 
upon the individuals of which the so-called civilized communities 
are composed, the observer discovers differences in their degree of 
culture and usefulness, that disdain all measure of comparison. 

5. Eeason wants to know the cause thereof ; and, in hunting it 
up, feels necessitated to behold it in the absence or presence of real 
knowledge or its opposite, and, therefore, expose to fuller view, the 
one as well as the other, with their immediate fruits and effects, 
upon man and men. For the absence no less than the presence of 
a thing discloses its importance and value, only doing it in a different 
way. The pain we experience from hunger and thirst, teaches us 
the value of bread and water, no less efficiently than the pleasant 
sensations derived from eating and drinking. 

6. The child of man, all over the globe, in all ages and climes, 
enters this world entirely naked. By the mere act of birth then, the 
child in civilized life has no advantage furnished by nature over 
the child of the savage; for, during infanc} T , both are equally 
helpless. But let them grow up to adult manhood, and then note 
the mighty difference in their capacities of performance and their 
application. The savage will be content to dwell in a miserable 
mud liut, a frail tent, or even a cave under ground or in a rock, to 
serve him as transient shelter ; while the skins and pelts of wild 
beasts form his immediate protection against the inclemencies of 
the atmosphere and weather upon the nude body. Living chiefly 
by the chase, partly by fishing, and neither knowing nor loving 
agriculture as a system, he requires a large range of territory for 
providing him the scanty, often uncertain, and frequently entirely 
inadequate, supply of the necessaries of life. 

7. Hence his mode of life is favorable neither to the development 
of the higher faculties of man, nor to the increase of population, — 



KNOWLEDGE, AFTER THUS BEGINNING, ETC. 41 

for mental development requires time and measurable freedom from 
the harassing care of bodily wants ; while increasing population 
peremptorily demands increase of food, and visits its absence with 
destructive misery and sweeping starvation. As long as the sav- 
age remains in this mode of life, there is no progress of intellect 
found in his community, from one generation to another ; while 
his physical constitution sometimes, from various causes, deterio- 
rates in a degree becoming not only weak and powerless, but also 
so defective in organism, that whole tribes have finally dwindled 
into idiotic imbecility. At other times, unpossessed of the proper 
means of knowledge and medical treatment, simple diseases, turning 
into destructive epidemics, have swept entire tribes out of existence, 
not leaving a soul behind to tell the sad tale. Separate and apart 
from his hunting and fishing qualifications, and the gymnastical 
training of his limbs and senses, consequent on his practice in these 
pursuits, and the kindred one of his eternal state of war with some 
one or other of his neighboring tribes, — the savage man, although 
a demon of cruelty and terror to his foes, is at bottom a very helpless 
being. And the only shield which he can spread over his helpless- 
ness, consists in the heroic, apathetic stoicism by which, uncom- 
plainingly, he manfully suffers in silent endurance the many evils, 
which he neither has knowledge to foresee, forecast to prevent, or 
power to ward off. 

8. The external face of nature in vain courts the savage to 
mollify its stern, majestic profile with one smile of embellishment 
and grace. Born in the dismal wilderness of the primeval forest, 
or the monotonous ocean of the boundless prairie, one generation 
of these savages passes away after another, in the same condition of 
lifeless stagnation as its predecessors. And, after the lapse of a long 
string of centuries, the features of both nature and man remain as 
rude, lonely uninviting, awfully portentous, as on the day when 
they first beheld each other's face. 

9. From these simple facts it is self-evident, that the rude, un- 
cultured man, has but little knowledge, a,) of nature and its 
hidden forces ; b,) of his own mysterious being ; and, c,) no con- 
trol over the vast ocean of thought that flits unappreciated and 
unappropriated, before the gaze of his best intellects. He is hence, 
of necessity, a creature of very limited powers, and far more 



42 THE TEMPLE OF TKUTH. 

subject instinctively to be impelled by the unknown forces in and 
around him, than capable of exercising a conscious control over their 
operations. 

10. Now let us take a look at the picture on the other side, and 
see what the progressive man has become, he who originally also 
born naked, and roaming as a savage hunter, perhaps for ages, 
through impenetrable forests, or paddling his rough canoe, through 
the water of rivers and sea shores, in his fishing excursions ; or 
advancing one small step, in mending mere physical existence, by 
bestowing his nomadic attention and care, on lonely steppes, upon 
his droves and flocks, of domesticated animals ; let us look at this 
man, after some fortunate incident commenced to set on fire his inner 
torch, by the light of which he awoke from his brute stupor, rubbing 
his eyes to ascertain and assure himself whether he had been 
dreaming before, or was dreaming now, when discovering within 
himself that, by which alone man is man, a creatively thinking 
being, capable of changing and controlling every thing around him, 
at all times, by the application of knowledge and tJwught, constituted 
as insight, if not in one moment, then in such accumulation of mo- 
ments as may be required to effect the object. 

11. The lonely, miserable mud hut, and fragile tent of the sav- 
age have disappeared, and in their place you see the blooming village, 
the stately town, the magnificent city, composed of solid and splendid 
edifices, swarming like a beehive with thousands of ever-active in- 
habitants, all deriving the means of support in a locality hardly 
large enough, in the wild state, to furnish subsistence for the inhabi- 
tants of a single wigwam. Out of those cities you see, wide as 
your eye can reach, the ancient wilderness transformed into one 
vast feitile garden, where the waving fields, richly laden with the 
golden grain, alternating with the life-green carpet of beautiful 
meadows, interspersed with grazing animals, all point your eye to 
the comfortable farm-houses, surrounded by barns, stables, sheds, as 
the centres of the controlling forces, whose action preserves the 
beauty of the picture before you from one year to another. 

12. In all directions you see the country checkered by roads and 
highways, often canals and iron tracks, connecting neighborhood 
with neighborhood, city with city, and the most distant parts with 
all the rest. On these yoy behold teams, boats, and long rows- of 






KNOWLEDGE, AFTER THUS BEGINNING, ETC. 43 

huge carriages, transporting men by thousands, and the various pro- 
ductions of all sorts, from near and far, interchangingly, from one 
part to another, so that at every part you may find a variety, 
coming from all other parts. You see a large population, scattered over 
a vast extent of country, in possession of means, which they call 
Press, Telegraph, Locomotive, whereby they possess the power to 
inform the whole country, in the shortest possible time, of every 
thing needed, or worth knowing, transpiring in any locality. You 
see them in possession of a handful of a whitish material, which 
they term paper, all dotted over with an infinitude of little black 
marks or figures ; and, after gazing in mute, intense silence for a 
shorter or longer period, upon these little black figures, they are 
able to tell you, as the case happens to be, not only of things as 
they exist or have transpired, in any part of the world, thousands 
of miles off. where the relator never in person has been, but inform 
you of things which, personally, he and you never could see, as 
they took place hundreds and thousands of years before you were 
born. Nay, they have even fixed, as by a magic charm of the 
same sorcery, upon various and numerous sheets of such paper, 
bound up in forms they call looks, all the most remarkable events 
not only happening knowingly anywhere on earth, since men did 
commence to regularly note these things, as likewise the names and 
doings of the men most conspicuous therein, but have even con- 
trived to preserve the very thoughts of these men, invisible as they 
were, by thus tying them to the outward visible signs of their great 
miraculous medium — language. 

13. In place of the little canoe, formed by painful toil, long, 
tedious labor, by a stone hatchet, from the trunk of a big tree, 
barely safe enough for crossing a small stream in calm weather, 
you see these men in possession of huge wooden or iron palaces, 
rushing, with violent haste, through the stormy billows of old 
ocean in all its climes, propelled by fire or wind, and knowing, upon 
its boundless waste of waters, the path to their most distant 
aim, as unerringly as if it were but a walk to their neighbor's house 
in sight. Well, we might continue swelling the invoice to the size 
of vast volumes, if we should specify merely the main items of 
progressive man's countless achievements. Has he not lurkingly 
espied the silent actual motions of the starry heavens, partly to use 
4 



44 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

them in his chronology, and partly as finger-boards, on his daring 
nights across the trackless, briny deep ? Has he not dived into the 
bowels of the earth, and to the bottom of the sea, and compelled 
them to surrender, as a triumphal trophy, to his positive knowl- 
edge, what his sensual eye can actually never reach ? You ask, 
how all this was accomplished, — in what manner did man conquer 
this wonderful control over nature and its vast terrific forces ? Let 
us find the true answer to this highly important query, as in it 
there lies a guide-board, hidden for our own path, pointing out the 
unerring way. 

14. There are at all times, and have been, in all ages, men, who 
know and see that what they perceive to be true, consists in their 
thoughts thereof. These men, when perceiving thus a new idea or 
thought, in their minds, of a new tool, machine, art, or other useful 
as yet unknown process of better and speedier performance in human 
pursuits, than the old clumsy mode in use till then, set to work, 
sometimes for long weary years, to give their thought, by dint of 
countless trials and indefatigable experiments, outwardly the shape 
and body, werein it can dwell and work. The successful result in 
such endeavors, if consisting in mechanical forms, is called an 
invention, otherwise it is termed a discovery. 

15. Now, when this sort of men, seeing their constant dependence 
on nature and its forces all around them, became aware of their 
power of thought residing within, they at once proceeded to its 
proper use. Seeing the bodily strength of many animals so much 
superior to their own, superadded to other qualities of manifold use 
and value, they set to work subduing, taming, and domesticating 
these brutes, by dauntless, patient perseverance, to that degree, 
until they could control their huge forces as they pleased, and 
derive from them food and raiment to supply their wants. To 
reap the full advantage derivable from the strength and qualities 
of these brutes, thought found the need of many tools and imple- 
ments. In some way or other its observing eye had discovered the 
metal of iron, and its malleable and valuable properties. A smooth 
stone and rock had to serve it as hammer* and anvil, to make the 
first rude iron hammer. 

*In the Semi-weekly (New York) Tribune, of October 27, 1857, a Mr. B. V. Prince, 
under the caption of " The Indians of the Great £asin" reporting his experience 



KNOWLEDGE, AFTER THUS BEGINNING, ETC. 45 

16. a.) Thought creates thought ; like begets like ; invention 
facilitates invention. After the first iron hammer existed, thought 
and it soon became the parents of a numerous progeny, which now 
we behold multiplied into infinitude all around us. The knife, 
hatchet, axe, spade, shovel, hoe ; the plane, chisel, mallet, bench, saw ; 
the wheel, yarn, reel, shuttle, loom; the plow, harrow, flail, wagon, 
harness : the needle, pin, nail, button, scissors ; the awl., last, thread, 
pinchers, leather, and the^e, vice, tongs, anvil, bellows, with a variety 
of other near relatives, were among the early-begotten children of the 
ever-prolific parents, b.) With the help of these the wilderness 
was transformed into field and garden : the hut and tent were made 
a substantial house and barn ; the canoe grew into a boat-like ves- 
sel, and nature, on earth and sea, began to acknowledge man as 
" one of the powers that be." By-and-by ever- planning thought 
began to make combinations, from various numbers of its former 
discoveries and inventions ; and. succeeding therein, it compounded 
these combinations again, into new units. Thus came the alphabet, 
written language, and book ; the mill, clock, and watch ; the marine 
compass, gunpowder, and man-d'-war ; the type, press, and printed 
volume ; the engine, factory, and snorting propeller ; the balloon, iron 
rail, and locwnotive ; the ocean steamer, and telegraph on land and at 
the bottom of lakes ; and last, but not least, its mammoth submarine 
cable, sure, in the end, to be successfully laid, — conquering old 
Ocean, annihilating its, until now, world-dividing power of time and 
space, and soon to encircle the globe with a scientific achievement, 
surpassing, in true grandeur and universal effects, all other enter- 
prises heretofore accomplished by men or nations. 

17. Now all these things, — with the countless myriads of others 
that exist, as wholes or parts, in the wide sphere of civilized indus- 
trial activity, scattered as tools, machinery, and implements of the 
most diversified kind and uses, all over the earth, — have not always 
been in existence. Each single piece thereof has had a time of 
beginning. None of them has sprung up from the soil of the earth, 
like a plant. None of them fell down from the sky, ready formed, 



among the tribes, and describing their condition, says of the Shoshonees : — " Consid- 
ering that they have nothing but stone hammers and Jlint knives, it is truly wonderful 
to see the exquisite neatness and finish of their implements of war and hunting." 



46 . THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

like rain, hail, or snow. Each one, and all of them, before they 
had visible existence, arose and existed as a thought, an idea, in the 
intellect of a thinking man. Convinced of its great usefulness, if 
brought into practical application, the seeing, knowing mind, urged 
the skillful, industrious hand to ceaseless trial and effort, until in 
the realized tool, machine, or system, it had created an organized 
body for its thought. 

18. In like manner, other thinking minds took the simple ele- 
ments of thought, as they found them deposited in the words of 
language, combining them into one with a new idea of their own, 
gave it an appropriate term and definition, and thus enriched man's 
knowledge, and lexicon of language, with a new treasure forever 
to be used. Thus we see how thought accumulated to thought, 
by the medium of language, became knowledge, insight, discovery, 
and invention, — all of which, in turn, deposited their results into 
language, in the form of words, denoting accepted, unquestioned 
general laws, or facts, — increasing man's stock of means to fur- 
ther progress in knowledge and power, with every new accom- 
plished step, 

19. But, before we quit this subject, it must be particularly 
noted, that every idea, conception, and definition ; every tool, term, 
and method ; every material, figure, and form, to be found in life, 
nature, science, and art, — hence every word in language, — had its 
first discoverer, or inventor, embodying the thing into the thought 
of the intellect, by clear knowledge, or insight. Before he came, no 
one understood the doing of the thing. After he showed it, it was 
easily understood by all who had the sense. Had he, or his like, 
never arrived, the thing would have remained unknown forever. 



NATURE AND FOUNDATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 47 



\ 



CHAPTER VI. 

EXAMINATION OF THE NATURE AND FOUNDATION OF KNOWLEDGE, 
AND ITS ULTIMATE FORM IN THE MIND. 

1. Man, casting his eye into the vast expanse of nature, — though 
he, by a single glance over the whole, perceives its parts to exist 
cotemporaneously, one along-side of another, that is, in space, — he 
yet can not, as we have shown (Chap. II, { 4, and elsewhere), accu- 
rately see, or contemplate its countless objects, all at once, and at 
the same moment ; but can do so, only by looking at one after 
another, — that is, in succession or time. 

2. The process of impression of the qualities, or phenomena of 
things, upon the nerves of the senses, or by thoughts upon the 
intellect, is dependent upon the same laws governing the action 
of light in the Daguerrian and plwtographic operations. Where 
there is no perfect calmness of sense or mind, the picture impressed 
on either, by the action becomes slurred, — is thus an untrue copy of 
the original, and hence elementally an error. 

3. Thought being inherently volatile by intrinsic nature, requires, 
therefore, in order to Jiold still, to impress its true shape and image 
upon the intellect, to be chained to a fixing medium. And as knowl- 
edge has been shown to be an accumulation of thought, which be- 
came possible, only by discovering a process to gather the thoughts 
of many men together ; as the thoughts of man are sensually inac- 
cessible to his neighbor, and his neighbor's to him ; as, further, the 
thoughts that pass through a man's mind, and the objects impress- 
ing his senses, during a series of years, are so numberless, that he 
could not, at any time he needs or chooses, control his recollecting 
them at pleasure, be his memory ever so good ; and as, finally, 
if there was no enduring sign, by which man could securely mark, 
to properly distinguish the various things and thoughts from one 
another, as they pass, seriatim and analytically, before his mind, 
and hence could have no knowledge of their various qualities 
(which alone enables him to make use thereof in reasoning): tfte 



48 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

absolute necessity, from these and other considerations, of such a 
fixing medium, as we have already discovered, in language and its 
words, to exist, becomes self-evident beyond the possibility of a 
doubt. 

4. Without this ability of interchanging thoughts with his fellow- 
man, and fixing them to signs for mutual permanent use, there can 
be no possibility of progress for man. For, the savage, as we have 
seen, though possessed of some limited form of oral speech, but 
destitute of and lacking the machinery to permanently fix the float- 
ing thought, barely contrives to secure a stagnant mode of life. 
"Were he deprived even of this imperfect mode of mental inter- 
change, no rational conception can well be framed, how he could 
continue to exist at all. 

5. Language, then, — the divine, first-born immortal child of 
mankind 's Reason, — is thus a gift to man, of value beyond price. 
As figures, as will be seen hereafter, form but one of the specific 
word-classes inherent in the nature of language, of whose peculiar 
office one part is, to denote to man the infinity of things existing 
in mind within, or nature around him, — so the words of language, 
and its plastic flexibility in description, denote these things them- 
selves, and their inherent nature, as far as ascertained. For, each 
word in language, duly understood, in its inherent sense, may be 
said to represent the conjoint incorporated judgment of men living 
from the beginning of time, up to this day, upon the thought con- 
tained in the Avord. Hence, words are signs for thoughts and ob- 
jects as fixed, definite and unerring, for him who understands their 
import, as the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., or of a triangle, square, circle, 
or any other, — as these are nothing else than words, belonging to 
particular classes of the language. 

6. As the object of language is the fixation, interchange, and con- 
sequent accumulation of thought, that object is defeated the very 
moment when the process is consummated defectively. Hence, 
as thought can not be seen or touched, it becomes not only inter- 
esting, to examine the mode by which men originally assured them- 
selves that they combined the same thought with the same word and 
object ; but the perception of that process may also become of the 
utmost value to us, for learning how we may arrive at under- 
standing each other's thoughts and words unerringly. 



NATURE AND FOUNDATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 49 

7. When thus, for instance, the name of sun was first given to 
the glorious luminary of day, men soon became aware that that 
name represented a threefold-different modification of one and the 
same thing before their mind : 1.) it denoted the word, as the term 
in language, by which the luminary was designated by man ; 2.) it 
denoted the luminary itself, as it stood, brilliant and glorious above 
every thing else in nature, in the azure sky ; and, 3.) it denoted 
the idea, thought, or mental image of the sun, present in man's intel- 
lect, as a distinct entity, from either the word sun, or the real sun 
itself. The same process led to a like equal understanding of the 
meaning and sense attached to all other words, which possess a 
homestead pre-emption in the domain of language, amongst minds 
capable of grasping the thought in its disembodied form. As we 
design to recur to this subject in another place and form, the above 
may suffice for the present. 

8. It must now begin to become clear to mature reflection, that 
the elements of all thought, — sufficing for all possible combinations 
of reasoning and knowledge, — are actually deposited in language, 
in the unpretending form in which simple, honest custom and general 
usage, of those that understand it, has brought it through its long 
passage of many centuries, up to our time and day. All that is 
needed on our side, is a correct understanding and use of the 
sense, as thought, as it is firmly affixed to every word. So long as 
we attend to this simple rule, we are understood by, and can un- 
derstand, all others, — observing it ; in as far as the elements of the 
matters treated of are lenown and familiar to the understanding of 
both the parties. 

9. As such is the unmistakable character of language and its 
words, it imposes upon us the peremptory rule : a.) To master 
and discipline pur thoughts, until we become able to give them an 
expression in words, as definite, unequivocal and concise, as if they 
denoted a geometrical proposition, h.) Next, to understand the 
words used by others, first in their true and exact meaning, and if 
that denotes more, less, or something different from what they 
design expressing, then to ascertain by interchange of thought what 
they really aim at, until their real sentiments are understood 
precisely. 

10. a.) Thoughts thus fixed to their proper words, become clear 



5U THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

and explicit to the intellect, are easily retained in the memory, 
without confounding them with others, and may be recalled for 
actual use whenever opportunity arises to need them. 6.) Thoughts 
not thus fixed to words as signs, can not be easily secured in the 
memory, nor be mastered sufficiently for ever-ready practical use ; 
and, least of all, correctly communicated from one mind to another. 

11. Men have been more or less careless in their proper attention 
to the laws of language, from a want of insight and appreciation 
of its true nature and real character. Language, from its fewest 
simple words, to its combination into a passage, conversation, speech, 
or the most ponderous volume, is nothing else than a series of ex- 
pressed judgments, repeated and accumulated by their author, like 
the links of a chain, all designed by him to show : that the truth, 
laid down in the first link of his proposition, in traveling in modi- 
fied shapes, through all the rest of the links, till it reaches the last, 
which is his main object or aim, is and remains essentially and 
equally true at each stage of its progress, or in every separate link. 
If the reasoner is able to show that he has done so, he has performed 
what logic would call a demonstration ; which simply means, that 
he has exhibited, to the intellect of his neighbor, a string of con- 
clusions, upon undeniable premises, from which said neighbor has no 
power to withhold his assent, just as if he had told him 2X2=4 ; 
2X4=8; 2X8=16; 2X16=32; 2X32=64, and so on to any 
other number. 

12.) A judgment thus arrived at by premises and links that can 
not by cand.or and fairness be denied, is as true and solid as any 
truth that exists. For the process of reasoning is alike, no matter 
what are the signs employed for expressing the thoughts and values 
concerned in the operation. Thus the equations in algebra, conclu- 
sions in geometry, solutions in arithmetic, are no more nor any thing 
else than judgments from premises by the same intellect which uses 
words as values of thought in other processes of reasoning. And 
if words, thoughts, and conclusions are correct, the result is as true 
and certain as an}^ other truth in the universe. For let it be clearly 
understood, once for all, that truth has no degrees ; so that one truth 
could be more or less true than another. Truth is the simple 
element of eternity, in whatever shape and garb it exists. The sim- 
ple sentences : " The sun shines ; I am doing this writing,''' are as 



NATUKfi AND FOUNDATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 51 

true as twice two is four; and as, there is a God ubiquitous in all 
heaven and infinity. 

13. a.) Men have fancied and fallen into this error, as if truth 
had degrees of more or less in regard to essence, because they 
perceived, on the one hand, that there was a vast difference in the 
importance, size, and values of separate parts of truth, as com- 
pared with one another ; and, on the other hand, confounded 
their own knowledge, correct or defective, with truth itself. 
Hence the}' divided truth, like their knowledge thereof, into 
relative and absolute, b.) A little mature reflection may suffice to 
cure them of this two-fold error. By recurring to chapter II, § 5, 
a-d, they will find an analysis of several elements as also of the 
legal elements and values of money, as the medium of exchange 
in our intercourse in trade and commerce. One glance upon the 
same, will convince them of the truth of the following facts : 1.) 
That the figure 1 is as absolutely a cipher as if you call that 1 a 
million or any other number ; 2.) That the letter a is as absolutely 
a letter, as all the rest of the whole alphabet, or as all the letters 
in a volume, or the libraries of the world ; and, 3,) that 1 single 
cent is money as absolutely as the 2000 cents of the double eagle, 
a million of dollars, or all the money upon the globe. Hence the 
apparently least important truth is, in its nature, no less as abso- 
lutely a truth as the greatest one that may be grasped by the intellect 
of man, angel, or God. Wherefrom it must become clear that the 
nature of all truth is never relative, but, to all eternity, absolute, as 
all its separate parts form but one coherent everlasting whole. c.~) 
There exists, however, in the grand system of truth a Divine 
order, whereby each truth, according to its size, nature, and value, 
has its place and function, of sub-co or super-location and ordina- 
tion, assigned to it, belonging properly to it, and to no other ; from 
Which fixation of place and function, each truth stands in a 
permanent relation to all other truths. The perception, by man's 
intellect, of any truth, in its true relation to this grand system of 
all truth, is absolute truth, and constitutes absolute "knowledge or im- 
movable certainty, d.) And as this grand system of truth exists 
in an undeveloped state, innately in the machinery and reasoning 
apparatus of every human intellect, and its perfect or imperfect 
development, forming the tremendous issue of man's destinv now 
5 



52 THE TEMPLE OF TKUTH. 

and eternally ; the mind, as Plato already clearly saw, " must 
desire and yearn after truth" in its absolute, unconditional form, 
separate from all incertitude and error, e.) But as men live in a 
-world filled with men, their arrangements and relations, driving, 
enticing, and forcing one another to perpetual action, without 
allowing but little chance for bodily and mental rest, for ascertaining 
how (to secure their best and permanent interests), their said action 
of all sort, should be constituted and carried out : their minds remain 
bewildered and confused by the turmoil and chaos of life ; the 
knowledge they gather, by reflection and interchange of thought, 
is seldom a vigorous mental judgment composed of elemental com- 
bination ; but far more often and generally a hybrid compound of 
truth and error, fact and fiction, based upon, and colored by, those 
self-made notions of ignorance and interest, which they themselves, 
in the shape of the ruling opinions of the day, have created and 
set afloat, from the silly conceit that God's providence, .stood in 
need thereof, to preserve a proper degree of public order, in the 
social relations of His human beings. /.) Hence there is no cause 
for marvel, that even the clearest intellects, dwelling amidst an ocean 
of such influences, should more or less be dragged into, and affected 
by, its whirls. For man is a social being, ruled by example, affec- 
tion, and love, and therefore infinitely more apt to accommodate 
himself to the sentiments of numbers, than sternly and lonely abide 
in proud majesty by the truth of his own thoughts. As thus the 
things and conditions in a life so constituted, are all relative, un- 
stable, insecure, and uncertain, the knowledge springing therefrom, 
can necessarily possess no other character ; and, as a whole, be 
nothing else than mere relative knowledge ; true so far only as its 
elements of judgments are correct or pure; false, wherever its 
premises are ill-founded. But thinkers ought to understand and 
see that human knowledge, even if it is absolute knowledge of a 
truth, is merely their perception, and not a making, of such truth ; 
for that truth existed before they saw it from all eternity, and will 
so exist forever, and hence as entirely independent of men's seeing 
or not seeing it, — all truth, in its nature and being, is absolute, not 
relative. 

14. As there is an infinite abundance of firm, fixed elemental 
truth in this world, existing all around man, sufficient for all the 



NATURE AND FOUNDATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 53 

reeds and purposes of his dualistic or compound life, — all that is 
required of him, only is, that he have the eye to see, and the will, 
courage, and manhood, to use it. He has, hence, therein all the 
materials needed for making all his knowledge absolute, and thus 
possess himself of absolute truth. To do so, he has only to reject, 
as elements or premises of reasoning, all propositions which, as far 
as he can see, do for him as yet, not belong to the class of absolute 
truths. The judgments or conclusions, then, derived from such 
simple and pure elements, are, in their nature, equally simple and 
pure compounds (or syntheses), as their elements themselves ; and 
can be applied, as new premises, with the same infallible process 
wherewith, after saying, twice 2=4, he continues to say, twice 
4=8, and so on, ad infinitum, the last link of the chain being never 
less absolutely true, than the first. 

15. But, in order to find the inexhaustible placers of the hidden 
wealth of rich truth within and without him, man must have some 
truth in himself. As long as he has not any, he can not see it else- 
where. For then he is in the condition which Christ denotes 
(Matth. vi, 23), namely : his inner luminary, instead of being a real 
light, is, in its own nature, nothing but actual darkness itself. Men 
of this sort look upon the ruling opinions in vogue, in the world 
around them, as their real truth ; and, vice versa, they regard real 
truth a.s mere individual and fancied opinion. 

16. There is a point in the life-chain of each man, toward which 
he is constantly advancing as he increases in years, at which a gen- 
eral court assumes its sessions w r ithin the forum of his own intel- 
lect, for the purpose of ascertaining, by the weights, meters and 
measures ruling the universe, what the real value of the man and 
the stock he has accumulated, actually is worth in the ever-par 
coin of eternity, — absolute truth, a.) for his God, b.) himself, c.) the 
human race, and d.) the whole universe. Plato's keen eagle ken, 
has discovered something of this awfull} r -august process, and per- 
ceived that no man's case was an entirely lost one, as long as, amidst 
the vast rubbish and dross of worthless, imaginary opinions imbibed 
from the godless state around him, he remained in possession of 
one single, real truth. 

17. In concluding our chapter, and recurring to its caption, we 
may then say : a.) The nature and foundation of knowledge, 



54 THE TEMPLE OF TEUTH. 

consist in the presence of true thoughts or mental facts before the 
intellect, derived either from the upper (mental), or lower (sensual) 
pole of consciousness, joined to the fixed conviction co-existing in 
the mind, of possessing therein the power to verify, by outward 
proof the truthfulness and correctness of such knowledge in exter- 
nal realizations, whenever the opportunity and necessary means are 
furnished, b.) The form in which this knowledge exists in the 
mind, is a cliain or series of judgments of the intellect, composed of 
various links, all hanging together, wherein the truth contained 
in the first member, travels through all the other links, to reach and 
abide in its aim, the last, — being and remaining equally true in all 
the links. 



CHAPTER VII. 

WHAT BASIS HAS LANGUAGE FOR ITS ALLEGED ACCUMULATION 
OF THOUGHT. 

1. We are informed that good ancient Pyrrlio, the primary 
father of honest skeptics, after being sadly baffled, vexed and con- 
founded, by the dextrous dialectics of the sophists of his day, — 
gave up his hope of ever discovering truth, altogether ; and resolv- 
ing to lead a quiet life of practical virtue, — never again ventured 
on discussing mooted questions. He would attentively listen to 
what both parties had to say, respectively, on their side. And, 
after hearing them, would, to all and always, give the invariable 
answer : " What you say may be true, or not — I shall not decide." Let 
it be noted, that the man whose character is reported to have much 
resembled that of Socrates, does not assert: u There is no truth!" 
but merely, "I will not decide, upon the merits of your debate." For, 
in practicing virtue, he had, every day, to decide, in his own intel- 
lect, in what thoughts and actions that virtue, or its opposite, was to 
consist, — in every case in which he had to act. 

2. We find that shrewd David Hume, the champion of modern 
philosophical skepticism, in his " Essay on Human Understanding," 
concentrates his main force in assailing the universal validity of 



BASIS OF LANGUAGE AND ACCUMULATED THOUGHT. 55 

the great law of causality, into his famous, but whimsical assertion, 
that the mind was unable to discover " the copula between cause 
and effect," when one billiard ball, set in motion, striking another, 
imparts that motion to the second ball. By "copula," Hume can, 
of course, mean nothing else, than the "connecting force or activity 
subsisting between the cause and the effect." Now, if he can not 
see that connecting force in the case he states, he must either be 
very dull, very blind or willfully perverse, to state a fact he can 
not well help knowing, — in language so irregular, as to mislead his 
readers into the suspicion, that he merely wants to try how far they 
may permit him to institute a frivolous play with their good humor 
or credulity, a.) When Hume went to the billiard table, he was 
conscious in his intellect, that by a thought he determined to do so; 
that thought, the first moving cause within, moved his body exter- 
nally on, till he found himself standing at the table. Here, then, 
is the first link in the proceeding, easily understood by himself and 
others. He next moved his hand, and took hold of the staff, with 
which to play. That was the second part or link in the movement ; 
and finally, placing one ball before himself, and sighting by aiming 
at another, struck the first ball with his stick. That was the third 
link in the chain of performance consummating the transaction. 
h.) The ball was no sooner struck, when it moved ; and if it hap- 
pened to strike the other ball, before its moving force, received 
out of the hand of the player, was spent, it imparted motion to 
that ball. If, however, the second ball missed striking, it did, of 
course, not move at all. If it was struck or merely touched by the 
first ball, after this had spent its entire motive force, the touch pro- 
duced merely a little vibration, but no actual locomotion, c.) Now 
when with that wooden cue in his hand, friend Hume strikes the 
first ball, making it move, — loliy is it, that he does omit calling our 
attention to the "copula" of tins first part or link of the phenomenon, 
where motion is truly actually first imparted from his mind to his 
will, from that will to the hand, from the hand to the wood stick, and 
from this wood to the first ball, — and prefers to concentre our un- 
divided attention upon the detached relation of the two balls, being 
the last link in the whole chain of the process ? The answer is pal- 
pable and simple ; because, if he had done so, the marvelous, ap- 
parent depth of the thought, in the making of so tremendous a 



56 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

discovery as seems to be implied therein, would at once and sud- 
denly shrivel back into the nothingness of the pretense ; for each 
intellect, casting its glance upon every link of the chain forming 
the whole transaction, would instantly clearly understand their in- 
separable connection, and perceiving that all these links make but one 
whole ; that each part thereof can only be correctly understood, in its 
connection with the whole ; but never when detached from the same, 
as Hume attempts making us do, in the case before us, by placing 
it before our eye piecemeal, hind-end foremost, — or, of the whole, — 
only the cut-off last part, d.) Let us clear up the pretended mys- 
tery, by looking at that which connects all its parts into one whole. 
If Hume never had thought of the billiard case on hand, he never 
would have initiated its trial to use a fraction of its whole fact, as 
the matter constituting his pretended argument; since only iliat 
object alone, — and nothing else, exists for the mind, for the time-being, 
upon which, each moment, its tJwught is fixed, e.) Of all forces known 
to man, ilwught is that power, ruling all the rest. It, therefore, is 
the primary power imparting movement to the will. For there 
can be no act of volition, which is not accompanied by conscious 
thought. All other phenomena of motion observed in man, not 
proceeding from thought, are either instinctive, morbid, or automatal, 
that is, involuntary. /.) All beings and things in existence, are 
bundles of forces, tied into one by one main force. These forces 
act, and are forced to act, by acting and reacting upon each other, 
as also driven by the great motion outside, impelling them to move 
on with the whole, in which all things exist. Like the bodies of 
these things form bundles or lumps, — so their actions form chains or 
lines, longer or shorter, consisting of links as constituents, points 
or parts. The process of all action for all things, consists, there- 
fore, in their transition from the first link, point or station of the 
chain or line, into the second, and from it through all the rest, until 
reaching the last. The performance of this transition through a 
line of action, is termed motion; and the cause producing it, is 
named force, g.) Thus, the life of man is one unbrokenly-connected 
line, or whole, from the moment of his birth, to that of his death, 
consisting of a given number of days ; each forming a link or point, 
in the longer or shorter extended line of this life-chain. The acting- 
out of this line is performed by each man's inherent life-force, by 



BASIS OF LANGUAGE AND ACCUMULATED THOUGHT. 57 

its entrance, on his birth-day into being, or the first link ; and from 
it, proceeding in connected succession, into each individual link, or 
single day, until it reaches the last, h.) Hence it will be seen, that 
life is one entire act or line, consisting of many parts, impossible 
to separate from its first link. For if man had not been born, as 
the first link, all the rest of the line could palpably never exist. 
The drawing of this line, is an unbroken act of motion, from its first 
moment of time to its last. The proximate cause producing that 
motion, is the life-force inherent in the vitality of man. The mode 
of its action consists in transplanting its whole self in succession from 
the first link, to every next, until reaching the last, — always carry- 
ing its whole accretioning accumulation into every succeeding 
station. If, now, the reader recurs to the last paragraph in our 
preceding chapter, where we define the form of knowledge as sub- 
sisting in the mind, — he will perceive the perfect analogy extant, 
between the abstract form of knowledge, action and life, each con- 
sisting of a line or chain, combined of various links, which all 
movingly are traveled through, from the first to the last link, 1.) 
in the chain of knowledge by truth ; 2.) in the chain of action by 
motion; and 3.) in the line-chain of life, by vital force. 

3. «.) That which binds the parts of a w T hole together, by thus 
running with abiding identity, into and through all its links, — con- 
stitutes that whole's main force or essence, making it the some- 
thing it is. As such, it is, itself, the main cause of all the effects 
it produces ; since its effects are absolutely nothing else than its 
egress from one link, as ingress into the other. Hence itself consti- 
tutes the true copula, between itself as the cause, and its action as 
the effect. Thus, man himself is the copula that binds all the sep- 
arate day-links of life into the one solitary chain, as he passes with 
his whole being, from one into the other, up to the last. When 
that last link shall come for the individual, depends, as a general 
rule, on the intensity and amount of the life-force imparted to him 
by creative power, when placing him into the first link at birth. 
The less the amount of that force, the sooner its motive-power will 
be exhausted, b.) Now, then, we will be able to disentangle the 
confused web of thought incased in Hume's billiard-ball simile. 
What he terms the copula between cause and effect, in this case, is 
clearly nothing else than the perception of the necessary connection 



58 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

of the motion between the two balls, and its transfer from the one 
to the oilier. Now, if Hume had seen one billiard-ball commence 
moving, by or from itself, without any perceptible outside cause pro- 
ducing that motion, then run against another ball, and, by its 
striking or contact, impart its motion to the second ball, — then his 
question for the copula, or connecting necessity in the phenomena, 
would have been highly sensible and pertinent; inasmuch as the 
intellect of no man could have suggested any. c.) But his assumed 
case has no such extraordinary feature. It only becomes puzzling, 
because he makes it so, by obstinately looking only at one single 
(and that the last) link in the chain, self-evidently composed of a 
distinct number of several links, — of which, the very first one, at 
once removes and explains the whole difficulty which he imagines 
to see. For, one moment of sane reflection will suffice to show 
him, or any thinking mind, that the copula binding all the phe- 
nomena of the case, as effects.; to the cause that produces them, is 
the motion itself, — created by the thought of the mind, and sent 
on its errand of execution, through the various stages of its links, 
in one undisrupted line of movement, until its force reaches its aim 
in the last link. 

4. Some people have indulged the belief that Hume neyer was 
truly in earnest in advancing this singular argument, but merely 
designed it as a philosophical hoax, to ascertain whether any of his 
cotemporaries had acumen enough to detect its fallacy. This 
opinion gains considerable force from his life and the rest of his 
writings, all of which evince a practical faith in the indissoluble 
connection of cause and effect, not surpassed by the most orthodox 
dogmatist. In selecting this famous argument for analysis and 
refutation, it was less our object to show its fallacy, than to estab- 
lish in the process, the various propositions thereby elicited, as we 
shall need them for further use. Yet, it can do at the same time 
no harm, to show the unfoundedness of the false conclusions of cele- 
brated thinkers, as they generally cause greater mischief to large 
numbers of minds less gifted, than to their authors personally them- 
selves. There are other thoughts suggested by Hume's disproven 
assertion, which deserve, and shall receive, due attention elsewhere, 
in their due time and place. Hume, like Pyrrho, has nowhere 
and at no time asserted : " There is no truth," but onlv refused to 



BASIS OP LANGUAGE AND ACCUMULATED THOUGHT. 50 

acknowledge various things as true, believed to be so by many other 
people. 

5. Pyrrlio and Hume, the patriarch and pontifex of the world- 
famous church of doubters, are then, after all, as we find, no such 
terrible skeptics as one might have supposed from the renown of 
their names. For none of them ever dream of assailing conscious- 
ness itself as the fact of facts ; nay, they even in theory as well as 
practice admit the existence of truth, and their individual perception 
of certain portions thereof. 

6. There is, however, a story told as a fact, not much known, of 
one poor skeptic, showing that in certain cruel circumstances, pri- 
vates and subalterns may be more reckless and daring than the 
chieftains commanding the army themselves ; and, at the same 
time, instituting an example of paying dearly for transgressing the 
very bounds respected by the chiefs. «.) Our story runs, namely : 
" That, upon a certain occasion, a skeptic had a desperate debate 
with an expert opponent ; who, in the heat of the fight, pressed 
him closely with the fact of his existence. Whereupon the skeptic, 
to nullify its force, boldly replied : ' That, in reality, he did not 
exist, but only appeared to exist !' The opponent, a man of strong, 
shrewd sense, suddenly dropped not only the argument altogether, 
but did not continue to speak another word to the desperate asserter, 
on that occasion, showing thereby that he treated the assertion in 
good faith; looking upon the skeptic, as what he had declared him- 
self to be, namely : a mere phenomenon, semblance, or apparition ; 
that had in itself no being, and wherewith, of course, no mental 
interchange could be carried on. b.) Moreover, he also wanted to 
convince himself as speedily as possible, by ocular perception of 
fact, how far the skeptic practically believed the desperate assertion 
he had so rashly and confidently made. Presently the skeptic 
departed for going home. The opponent knew, that before reach- 
ing home, the doubter had to pass a spot where an ugly dog some- 
times molested the by-passers. Knowing a short cross cut to come 
near the place in question, where, unseen, he might observe what 
would turn up, the opponent quickly grasped his strong walking 
cane, suspecting the possible contingency of its use, and hurried to 
the spot where the other had to pass. In a few moments the 
skeptic hove in sight. But hardly had he done so when a loud 



60 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

scream of terror, mixed with a dog's howl, announced the fact that 
the angry brute was attacking him. c.) Quick as lightoing the 
hidden observer was on the ground of battle, and with a few well- 
aimed and telling strokes of the massive cane drove off the furious 
beast, from the yet unharmed but terribly frightened skeptic. 
"When, looking into the paled face of the frightened, trembling 
man, his rescuer, feigning unbounded astonishment in his recogni- 
tion, with a good-humored, but most sarcastic laugh, exclaimed : 
' Wliat ! my good friend, is that actually yourself who hallooed thus 
lustily for Jielp, or was it somebody else, who really is and not 
merely appears to he V The poor skeptic, though much ashamed, 
yet partly from real gratitude to his generous deliverer, and partly 
from fear of becoming the general laughing-stock, in case the story 
should obtain immediate publicity, acknowledged, with flushed 
cheeks, the wrong he had done in resorting to an assertion dis- 
proving itself in its very making, begged his friend to keep the 
matter to himself, and promised a perfectly candid behavior and 
course in all further controversies." That was the only, the first, 
and the last time ever heard of, that the grand fact of consciousness 
was attempted to be assailed. 

7. Here, then, we have in consciousness an immovable basis, ac- 
knowledged as one unassailable, universal fact, by each and all 
parties. But were one-half to affirm, and the other half fool- 
hardy enough, with our last friend of dog-biting memory, to deny 
it, their very denial would be as much and as strong a demonstra- 
tion of the great fact itself, as if, with Descartes, they had said : 
" Cog/to ergo sum," — ("I think, hence I am.") Thus we have 
found and reached the " Ultima TJiule" of the power of doubt, 
constituting the boundaries beyond which its restless waves may 
never surge. 

8. In accepting consciousness as their common pristine fact, as the 
element of all elements : all the sects of thinkers who really are 
such, have to agree, no matter whether they are Idealists or 
Realists, Dogmatists or Skeptics. But no sooner have they agreed 
on this grand fact, when they at once again separate, by taking 
their stand antagonistically to one another, in the two poles of the 
primary truth. The Idealists, posting themselves into the sky-fort 
of thought, and the Realists upon the inviting pleasure-grounds of 



BASIS OP LANGUAGE AND ACCUMULATED THOUGHT. 61 

sensation, disdaining all familiar intercourse, and without ever 
accurately inspecting each other's position, descry each, of course, 
without correctly knowing it, respectively the position of the other, 
not dreaming that thereby they harm and damage their own in such 
a measure as to deprive it of its best charms and greatest benefits. 
a.) With Emerson, the former says, coupling great truth with im- 
portant mistakes: "Matter is a phenomenon, not a substance." 
" Idealism acquaints us with the total disparity between the evidence 
of our own being and the evidence of the world's being. The one 
is -perfect; the other incapable of any assurance ;"* and, again, "In 
my utter impotence to test the autlienticity of the report of my 
senses, to know whether the impressions they make on me corre- 
spond with outlying objects, etc." * * (*' * lb. p. 45.) Thus it wall 
be seen that the idealist is a skeptic in his position and relation to 
nature, as well as to his opponents, whereby he must suspect that the 
great power who forms nature as it is, designedly purposes to mis- 
lead Mm; for such must necessarily be the case, if it has withheld 
the means and ways to ascertain tlie truth, b.) On the other hand, 
materializing, grasping, ambitious sensualism, disturbed in the 
feasting saturnalia of its perpetual " now," or the insatiate accumu- 
lation of matter upon matter, for power or wealth, is much dis- 
concerted when, beholding the stern majesty of superior truth in 
the loftily calm countenance of Idealism, though " sicklied o'er with 
the pale cast of thought," can only ward off or neutralize the un- 
pleasant impression, made thereby upon its rosy dream, by replying 
to it with Faust : " Gray, dearest friend, is all thy theorizing but 
evergreen life's golden tree I" And when chided for its presumptuous, 
ignorant assurance in matters of momentous import, it replies, 
with unmoved countenance, quoting the same high authority : 
" Have never bethought me of thinking !" 

9. These two parties now divide life and the world between one 
another; but the division and the parties are very unequal, one 
counting the few, the other a large number ; for every man, no mat- 
ter whatever be his professing theory, belongs, practically, to one 
camp or the other. That each side has truth, of a certain sort, on 
its side, there can be no question. That such truth is accompanied, 

* Emerson's Nature, Addresses, and Lectures. Art. Spirit, p. 60. 



62 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

in both camps, with, error and short-sightedness, and in the latter 
with a far larger amount of ignorance and error than itself, so as to 
more than neutralize the good of the truth there is, the terrible 
fruits of life as it is, leave no room to doubt. To remedy the evil 
both parties must be forced, forced by the stern power of necessity, 
inherent in the nature of truth, to do justice to each other's truth, 
look it candidly and closely in the face, and then say, if they can, 
that it is not essentially one and the same with their own. No 
sooner will they thereby be convinced tlmt all tJieir separated truth 
is in reality but one grand unity of eternal truth ; when intellectual 
peace, the primary source of all other peace, will commence to be 
established upon earth, and from it, by steady steps, all other peace 
among men will inevitably flow. 

10. To reach this unity of truth, it is necessary to show that it 
already exists in the primary conformation of language, demanding 
only a calm investigation to understand it, and the mode how it 
was arrived at correctly ; as likewise to point out the absolute ne- 
cessity, in man, of needing precisely such a reliable language, for 
supplying the wants and needs inherent in his being, a.) Based 
upon the indubitable certainty of dualistic consciousness, men, in 
earliest ages, being always found, everywhere, in possession of the 
first rudiments of a language, enriched such language continually, 
by framing the new observations, discoveries, and experiences made, 
from day to day, into conceptions and ideas expressed by new words. 
After these words had accumulated to considerable of a stock, the 
thought must strike an acute thinker to ascertain, if it could be 
done : whether all ivho made use of the like ivords, combined also the 
same tlwughts ivith these words ? The mooting of this question led to 
the investigation of the still deeper one, tying at its bottom ; lohether 
?nen's thoughts are really alike, ami, if so, upon what such identity is 
founded? This preliminary question they answered themselves 
as follows : b.) No matter what the accidental difference in the 
conformation of men's limbs and separate parts in each individual 
be, the normal formation of all men, at all times, and in all things, 
is primarily alike in all essential features. For, 1,) the body of all 
men is formed after one and the same identical pattern ; 2.) The 
form of that body is endowed with the like number, and general 
structure, of limbs and parts ; 3.) Its vital force is provided with 



BASIS OF LANGUAGE AND ACCUMULATED THOUGHT. 63 

the same identical senses, forming in sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste, 
and feeling, six in number, constituting its exclusive, only channels 
of connection with, nature and the exterior universe ; 4.) Man, 
everywhere, enters life, as a branch of the great trunk of the race, 
by the same laws of generation, formed out of the same substance, 
and nourished by the same ingredients, that constitute the essence 
of his fellows ; 5.) Man, thus alike sprung from one source, gifted 
with the like parts, formed of the same elements, provided with 
the same susceptibilities, exists in every individual, surrounded by the 
same totality of the universe, operating upon his aforenamed senses, 
in a like manner, by the like forces, governed in their action of im- 
pression upon him by the same all-ruling laws : hence, as the same 
impressing causes are here acting upon beings formed so essentially 
alike, they must impress upon all, essentially, the like effect. Hence, 
further, the thoughts of men upon these impressions can differ no 
further from one another, than these impressions themselves. 

11. This course of reasoning very soon found ample opportuni- 
ties to probe for itself, by actual experience, whether it spoke fact 
or hypothesis. This probation could in no other way be instituted 
than by the use of language. For, to ascertain Avhether the im- 
pressions as well as the thoughts of men were actually alike, the 
former had first, in all men, to be translated into thoughts, and then 
both pure thoughts, arising in the mind from observing itself or 
thought, as well as thoughts combined from outer impressions, had 
to be fixed to, and embodied into, a ivorcl, denoting each individual 
thought. Such word then became the permanent sign of the 
thought, the thought of the thing, and the attributes, qualities, and 
relations attached to them, within the vision of the mind. Thus, 
furnished with the material and machinery of interchanging thought, 
it remained now to be seen how the machine practically did work ; 
and, if found that it worked reliably in a number of instances, 
then to learn its use to such degree, as to render it reliable in all 
cases. The experiments necessary to ascertain these facts are not 
difficult to imagine, as they can only be similar to our own situa- 
tion, now-a-days, when learning a foreign language, and before we 
reliably know the thoughts connected with the words thereof. 
The following was, no doubt, the mode pursued in a number 
of instances : 



64 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

12. a.) After agreeing upon a number of words to denote things 
and thoughts, they would continue to observe the difference in 
outer and inner phenomena, and give each new one an appropriate 
term ; seeing, for instance, of the object they had named, a tree. — 
one tree, and its difference from a whole forest of trees ; they would 
say of the single tree : It is one (1) tree ; adding another, they Avould 
call both conjointly two (2) trees, and so on with 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 
etc. Next, they would perceive the difference in size between a 
young and an old tree ; would call the first small and the latter 
large. Then one tree they saw rising erect, in a perfectly per- 
pendicular attitude and shape, toward the sky, whereas another grew 
up, in shape and direction, composed of irregular lines and curved 
parts ; the first they would call straight and the latter crooked. 
Next, they perceived that the surface of objects, when visible, 
affected their sight variously, in proportion as it reflected a hue 
approaching more or less toward light, or, its opposite, darkness. 
Naming these general impressions by the class-name, color, they 
called its various and most marked degrees, white, yellow, red, blue, 
black, etc., etc. b.) The same process they pursued with all things 
and their relations, as well as those observed as external phe- 
nomena of the senses, or the varied state of inner sensations, and 
even the vast range of objects peopling their hidden world of 
thought. Now, after thus possessing, in language as it were, an 
invoice or inventory of all the thoughts, things, and attributes, de- 
posited, year after year, by the work of all single minds, into this 
treasury of the common intellect ; the fact was to be ascertained, 
Avhether and in how far, where the parties knew the meaning at- 
tached to words of the language correctly, the thoughts each com- 
bined therewith, in their mind, were the same and alike in all 
minds ? c.) That matter was easily tested, in ordinary cases, 
whereas others required longer time and different methods. Thus, 
to test a man, how far he understood the words of language in 
every day use, the following simple experiments would suffice, 
and prove his thoughts connected with such words to be absolutely 
identical with those of the querist and all others understanding 
them. Thus A would say to B : "Show me your ten fingers !" 
whereupon the other would instantly stretch out, and hold into tho 
querist's sight, both his hands with expanded digits, proving therein 



BASIS OF LANGUAGE AND ACCUMULATED THOUGHT. C5 

that he knew the terms, " show, ten, fingers," and whose fingers 
were meant, exacts like the querist. Next, he would send him, 
out of doors where, in a named corner, a number of poles, of 
various shapes and sizes are standing, among which there is one of 
a particular formation, which the querist wants him to fetch in, 
calling it "that large crooked stick." In a moment the identical 
piece of wood, demanded by the querist, is brought in as infallibly 
as if he had been there in person, pointing it out to the other, with 
his own finger, as the selected piece. Once more he would say : 
" Go to yon blooming meadow and bring me 1 white, 2 yellow, 3 red, 
and 4 blue flowers, and tie them together with a black string.' 1 ' 1 Pres- 
ently the required nosegay is brought in and laid upon the table. 
But the examiner says : "Hold on, my friend, a moment longer, 
we are not through yet, and I must probe you a little more. Take 
up these flowers, untie the string, and do as I say. Well, you 
have loosed the string ; now take one yellow and one blue flower, 
and place them on the centre of the table ; next, take one red and 
one blue one, and put them on the near right corner ; then take a 
yellow and a red, and put them on the far right corner ; now take 
the white and a blue and place them on the far left corner ; and, 
lastly, tie that black string again around the upper end of the stems 
of the remaining red and blue flowers, and put them on the near 
left corner of the table." All this is instantly performed as uner- 
ringly as clockwork. 

13. a.) There are men in this world of profound and powerful 
intellects, connected with hearts swelled by the noblest aspirations, 
who almost have despaired of mankind, by having imbibed the 
idea, because seeing so little inclination among men to correctly un- 
derstand one another, that there actually exists no capacity in the 
human intellect, to understand any other intellect or human mind, 
fully and wholly : and hence they give up all hope and attempt to 
make themselves so understood by others, and to understand others, 
and enable others to understand them ; as likewise, from this cause, 
despond of ever seeing a perfect understanding brought about among 
the individuals of the race, b.) Now, to such men, we submit for 
close and calm inspection, the grand law of intellect underlying the 
simple operations above detailed, — whereby it becomes self-evident 
that men, in all cases where the developed capacity exists, by having 



€6 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

merely the will, taking the trouble and exercising the requisite 
patience, — they can make known to one another, by the exact 
use of the words of language, each other's thoughts, sentiments and 
ideas, as accurately and infallibly, as any possible process of mathe- 
matical or other science is ever able to effect. Even now, men gen- 
erally understand each other's thoughts well enough, where their 
interest lends them the inclination to do so. If such was not 
truly the fact, the vast business operations now carried on in the 
world, depending altogether on mutual concert of vast numbers, each 
party understanding their place, function and necessity of action to 
the whole, would be an absolute impossibility. In like manner, 
all the achievements of the past, whatever they may amount to, 
and in so far as they really are such, have, all and singly, been only 
accomplished by men understanding each other's thoughts. 

14. Now, let us yet show, that man absolutely needs a lan- 
guage thus constructed, to furnish him reliable knowledge ; as 
otherwise he could not exist as a rational being, a.) The single 
man is, and can be, present only in one spot or locality of space, at 
one and the same moment of time ; and can, therefore, observe 
only what transpires in the small circle immediately around him ; 
whilst of the infinity of events passing all over the globe at the 
same moment, he is personally entirely ignorant. Man's individ- 
ual life is likewise limited to a certain number of years, which, if 
every moment thereof would be employed for the purpose of ob- 
serving nature, the world and himself, — this would yet not form a 
drop in the bucket, of the vast material requisite, if he had, by such 
personal observation alone, to gather all the elementary thoughts 
and facts, out of which a system of knowledge was to be framed, 
that could in the least degree suffice for his absolute physical and 
intellectual necessities, b.) Furthermore, the lifetime of man, if it 
amounts to threescore and ten, or even more, affords him the op- 
portunity of observing personally, the limited number of phe- 
nomena and events transpiring in his presence, during his life, in 
the age wherein he exists : whereas, of the infinity of things taking 
place in the thousands of years passing before his time, he person- 
ally knows no more than before he was born. Thus the amplest 
observations and most extensive experience of individual man, 
could never collect simple materials, in facts and thoughts, suffi- 



BASIS OP LANGUAGE AND- ACCUMULATED THOUGHT. 67 

cient for framing the most rudimental system of knowledge and 
language, embracing a cognition of merely those simple universal 
laws of nature and himself, indispensable to his perpetual needs. 
c.) Even in the case, hardly a possible one, that an individual mind 
had been in possession of all these elements of knowledge, for 
framing a needed system, it would have required the creative ability 
of an extraordinary intellect to digest these elemental materials and 
form them into a harmonious whole. Such a process becomes, 
however, a possible one only, even for an intellect divinely endowed, 
when a language is already present, sufficiently copious and devel- 
oped, to lend material, method, and shelf-work, for giving birth, shape 
and configuration to the grand ideas deposited in the fertile pro- 
fundity of creative genius, d.) And if individual man, and he more 
than ordinarily a thinker, were placed in possession of a language, 
before all the processes thereof heretofore discussed, had been suc- 
cessfully gone through with, his lifetime, forces and opportunities 
would be insufficient for ascertaining how far the invisible thoughts, 
in the minds of other men, and the impressions they all individu- 
ally receive from the forces of nature, were, or were not, in all 
essentials precisely like his own. 

15. This transcendent fact he now knows, by the use and as the 
result of language, as certainly as he knows his own thought ; and 
thereby knows also, with equal reliability, that whatever is a truth 
or a law of nature for himself, is, and must be, one for every other 
human being, no matter whether they have acquired a conscious 
knowledge thereof or not. And now, we feel enabled to answer 
the query heading our chapter, as follows : a.) The basis of 
language, to enable it being an infallible means for accumulating 
thought, reposes upon the following unassailable facts and results : 
1.) all men, springing as children one from another, like the limbs 
of a tree, belong to one unitary race, — are formed, more or less 
normally perfect, after one identical pattern ; their intellect, deriv- 
ing its elements of thoughts and impressions, from the same causes 
and sources, proves by understood interchange of thought, its identity 
of essence, as well as its rule by the same code of law ; their dualistic 
nature showing in essentials, all the same faculties and wants, driving 
them in the main to pursue the same ends, aiming at the same pur- 
poses ; and for the reaching of which, there is but one and the same 
6 



68 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

way for all, wherein they absolutely need each other's help. 2.) Placed 
thus primarily by creative power, in a condition of unavoidably 
needing one another for receiving life, preserving its existence, and 
securing its ends : the very possibility of their beginning and con- 
tinuing to exist at all, depended a priori, upon the possession of a 
medium, whereby infallibly to impart, understand, and exchange 
their invisible thought. 3.) Hence humanity's existence and its 
endurance on earth for thousands of years, is itself simply the 
effect and proof of the presence of such medium, — which, as the great 
cause of every thing helpful, worthy and valuable to man, pro- 
claims its never-ceasing ubiquity, with such million-tongued echoes 
from all quarters whereon man's eye may fall, that insanity and 
idiocy alone, are deaf to hear their world-filling sound, b.-l.) As 
the universe of things around, and their impressions upon man are 
infinitely diversified and heterogeneous, and the intellect dealing 
in nothing but thought : Eeason, by giving man language, and 
forcing him to its use, therein also compelled him to translate the 
whole heterogeneous mass of things and impressions, into the homo- 
geneous essence of thought, and to tie each individual particle or lump 
thereof to an appropriate body, termed a word, and then deposit 
it in the storehousing repertory termed language. 2.) Hence, the 
whole language of man, is nothing else than one vast magazine of 
thought, each thought therein being like a living spirit, tied to its 
own word, as its outward body. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



WHAT IS THE NATUEE, CONSTITUTION, STRUCTURE, CONTENTS AND 
SOURCE OF LANGUAGE ? 

It has somewhere been asserted by some modern Masorethic 
curiosity-hunter, that the five languages most prominent on earth, 
contain, each, the following number of original words, viz : 1.) The 
French, 32,000 ; 2.) the English, 45,000 ; 3.) the Latin, 56,000 ; 
4.) the Greek, 65,000 ; and, 5.) the German, 150,000. Whether 
this assertion is founded upon actual fact or fiction only, is imma- 
terial to our present proximate purpose, which herein was, and is, 



NATURE, CONSTITUTION, ETC., OP LANGUAGE. 69 

to remind the reader of that main fact, that every language consists 
of a definite number of words, which is steadily increasing, as new 
ideas and things arise. The science and discipline selecting lan- 
guage as its special object of attention, is termed Grammar. Every 
language has its natural, or general, and next, its artificial or proper 
Grammar. As language is an emanation from the intelligence of 
man's Reason, its natural or general Grammar consists in that logical 
construction inherent in all languages, by which all the words it 
contains belong, of necessity, to one or the other of the few classes 
that form the unchangeable skeleton underlying the body of every 
human language. The artificial or proper Grammar, is that pecu- 
liar conformation, construction, and rule of usage, whereby and 
wherein all concrete languages differ one from another. Hence we 
find in all languages, dead or living, that are in anywise developed 
to deserve the name, — ten classes of words, and neither more nor 
less, — which, like the ten primary figures of arithmetic (from 
0-1 — to 9), constitute for language its pristine elements of combina- 
tion. These classes are : 1.) The substantive noun, representing a 
being, thing, object or thought, capable of either acting, or being 
merely passively acted upon, or possessing both capacities con- 
jointly, or expressive of an idea, or thought, describing the condi- 
tion or state of another thing ; such as : man, mountain, justice, 
health. The changing relations of active-and-passiveness, in which 
the noun is alternately placed, are clearly indicated by the cases 
constituting its well-known scale of declension. 

2. As man, split into the sexual halves of male and female, dis- 
covers this dualism to exist in all animated nature, — yet, there 
existing in language and nature, a vast class of things manifesting 
no outward sign of sex, and, therefore, forming a third indefinite 
or neuter species, — language denotes this sexual difference in 
beings, and the neuter gender of things not belonging to either 
sex, either by a special class of words called the "sex-word," or 
Article, like the Greek 6, tj, to, — the German fcer, fcte, b(J3, — the 
Frence le, la, — the English the, — or like the Latin, it expresses 
this threefold gender of nouns, by the termination of their end- 
syllables (as, for example, vir, femina, lignum, man, woman, wood). 
Here the peculiarities will be perceived, that the French language 
has no neuter gender at all, not even its pronouns ; is hence ruled 



70 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

by an absolute dualism, — every noun in the language being either 
masculine or feminine ; while the English, by its Article the, has 
that other singular, indefinite peculiarity of denoting no gender 
at all, but applying it indiscriminately to the nouns of all genders 
alike, and ignoring, by outward sign, gender altogether. Yet the 
language has and acknowledges all the three genders fully in its 
pronouns and universal usage. Hence, it not seldom happens, that 
the English speaker or writer, in cases where gender has to be 
defined, and language has not done it, like in ram and ewe, boar 
and sow, bull and cow, — he must, to overcome the dilemma, em- 
ploy the sexual pronoun, and say " a he or a sfte-goat," as the case 
happens to be. 

3. The noun being thus inherently always either a he, she, or it, 
or gender one of its permanent attributes, it may additionally pos- 
sess various other properties, more closely defining and describing 
its nature and quality. This description is performed by the third 
class of words termed adjectives. For, when we say : the man, the 
woman, the child, we only know classes and genders of these nouns, 
but nothing more of their possible other qualities. No sooner do 
we add an adjective, and say : the strong man, the lovely woman, 
the beautiful child, when our conceptions become thus much more 
definite and clear, respecting the classes to which they really belong. 
If we add one more adjective, and say : the strong heroic man, the 
lovely tender woman, the beautiful angelic child, — we have placed them 
into classes, whereby our knowledge of these beings is not only 
enlarged, but has become also of that nature, which excites our 
interest, in more than an ordinary degree. From this, it becomes 
evident, that, as soon as we clearly know all the adjectives of right 
pertaining to the original of every noun, we, therein, knowing all its 
qualities, know the thing as it is in itself. Adjectives, as indicative 
of qualities, are subject to increase or decrease, as indicated in the 
three grades of the sliding-scale of comparison ; the positive, com- 
parative, and superlative. Additionally their force is qualified by 
the attachment of an adverb (see below), which, in that case, may 
be said to become the adjective of the adjective. 

4. Nouns, representing beings and things capable of acting and 
being acted upon, such positive and negative action is represented 
in the fourth class of words, called time-word or. verb. All such 



NATURE, CONSTITUTION, ETC., OF LANGUAGE. 71 

various action occurs in succession or time, is performed or suffered, 
as well by individual as by aggregated beings and forces, is hence 
subject to the several modalities of being, defined by terms, as : the 
possible, contingent, actual, necessary, or inevitably subsisting, — all of 
which are expressed in the conjugations which variegate the form 
of the verb, so as to indicate time in its past, present and future 
tenses, show individual or collective action or sufferance by the 
singular or plural forms, and denote the modality of action and 
being, by its conjunctive, conditioned, indicative, imperative, and 
infinitive modes. 

5. Language being designed to enable the speaker to convey the 
full shape of his fact or thought with its various colors and shades 
to his fellow-man, with mathematical accuracy and precision : 
Reason, when giving birth to language, saw that the noun, when- 
ever becoming active in the verb, might be speaker, actor, or nar- 
rator of the fact, or both, — might be one being speaking of itself to 
its neighbor, or to its neighbor of that neighbor, or of a third party 
or thing, or parties or things ; or the being, acting jointly with 
others, might speak of itself to them, to one, more, or all ; it might 
speak to them in their joint name, or, in that capacity, address one 
or more of them or others, — speaking now of a single, and next of a 
collective third party or thing, — in all of which different cases, like- 
wise, the genders of subjects and objects might be concerned and 
alternately changing. If the expression of all this was to be per- 
formed by repeating, in every instance where occurring and con- 
cerned, the full name of the nouns themselves, — language would 
inevitably not merely become a fatiguing conglomeration of sounds 
or terms, understood only with increasing difficulty, but would also 
be deprived of the euphonic, laconic and logical beauty, that now 
adorn its proper use. To meet all these various contingencies, the 
fifth class of words, representing the noun in its diverse attitudes, 
called pronoun, was introduced. And by its main species, the per- 
sonal pronoun, in its singular and plural forms, we are enabled to 
specify actors and acts, in all cases arising, with the precision of the 
daguerreotype. For, when we say : J, thou, he, she, it, we, you, they, 
and affix to them the verb to be used in the shape demanded by 
the case, we know and exhibit it in its clearest light. 

6.) The action of the verb, like the quality of the noun, denote4 



72 THE TEMPLE OP TRUTH. 

by the adjective, is capable of an increase or decrease of intensity 
to express which, we have the sixth class of words, called the ad- 
verb; being equally, as occasion may require, an adjective to the 
verb, or an adjective to the adjective. Some of these adverbs, the 
qualitative, are offsprings of the adjective, and are, like these, muta- 
tive from one to the other, in the three grades of the sliding scale. 
Others are expressive of some circumstance, attached to the verb, 
thereby qualifying, enhancing, or restricting its action. Let us give 
an example of each sort. When you say : " Virtue, I love thee!" 
you denote no particular degree of the act. If you, however, say : 
" Virtue Hove thee ardently ; — my best friend loves thee more ardently ; 
but I desire, with him, to love tJiee most ardently ;" you describe all 
the qualities in the action which it manifests, in passing in its egress 
from its incipient into its highest degree. By the adverbs, ex- 
pressive of negative or indefinite quantity, you, also, may qualify 
the verb's intensity of action. For, if you say : " i" love" you 
indicate no degree ; if you add the adverb much, saying : "Hove 
much," you define its degree more proximately. By now adding 
the negative adverb not, saying : " I love not much," you have 
subtracted the prior increase, leaving the real sense of the para- 
graph, " that you love, but love not much." In like manner, by 
affixing an adverb to an adjective, you can indicate the indefinite 
quantity in the noun's qualities much nearer, as, for instance : the 
strong man ; the uncommonly strong man. 

7. The three first classes of words, noun, article, and adjective, 
show us beings, things, and forces, with their gender and qualities 
capable of acting or resisting action ; the three next : verb, pronoun, 
and adverb, show us the practical performance with the precise 
amount and nature of this action, keeping rigidly in view, the 
character of the actor, as exhibited by the three first classes, and 
therein show us, who acts, and of what kind the action is. Now, the 
questions arise : wliere, when, and how do these actions occur ? As 
by the absolute constitution of nature, all finite things exist in 
space, or alongside of one another, and their action taking place in 
their respective localities, which often may change every moment, 
there must be words to designate these their relative positions, fixing 
the relations thereof to the permanent features of the visible uni- 
verse, and man's own mode of physical existence therein, such as : 



NATURE, CONSTITUTION, ETC., OF LANGUAGE. 73 

east and ivest, north and south, zenith and nadir, up and down, above 
and below, fore and aft, before and behind, right and left, here and there, 
etc., etc. Next, all individual action can occur only in succession or 
time; but all the forces existing cotemporaneously, may be, and 
actually are, more or less active, in one and the same moment of 
time. Hence the need of words, expressing this various modifi- 
cation in the state of time, such as : then, now, hereafter ; a while 
ago, at present, soon ; since, ever, cdway ; yesterday, to-day, to-mor- 
row ; before, lohilst, during, after, etc., etc. Furthermore, the exe- 
cution of all actions is subject to a certain order, resulting from the 
laws inherent in motion, forces, and circumstances controlling the 
individual case at the time, whereby the actors engaged continually 
change position and relation ; all of which changes, denoting the 
liow f of the action, are expressed by such terms as : to and fro ; by 
and of ; on and of ; near and far ; in and out ; upon and under ; 
with and ivitliout ; for and against ; within and without ; among and 
out-of; amid and between; through and about, etc., etc. The class 
of words thus describing the relative location in space, or the where ; 
the relative point in time, or the when, and the ever- varying posi- 
tion of the condition and relation, in forces and acts, or the haw, 
of actors and actions, giving therein the most minute history of 
every individual transaction, constitutes our seventh class of words, 
called preposition. 

8. The forces engaged, and the act performed, in a given case, 
may be one only, or any other possible number. Forces and acts 
also differ in their nature, size, value, and importance ; belong, 
hence, eo ipso, inherently, a priori, to different classes. Language 
being, strictly speaking, a digested, encyclopaidial, universal history 
of the all-ruling law of cause and effect ; ruling/with boundless sway, 
all the vast forces merely indexed in the preceding seven numbers, 
or word-classes, urging and demanding pi~ecision in expressing fact and 
thought in every other particular, could not omit and avoid re- 
quiring that most important matter, of explicitly specifying the 
number and meter of actors and acts, so as to clearly show the 
amount and quality of force employed, and the amount and value of 
effect produced. Hence, she furnished man the eighth class of 
words, called number ; whereby, he not only can introduce the most 
perfect classification, which constitutes the soul of order, into all he 



74 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

knows, wills, and does in nature and thought; but, by the mystic 
virtue inherent in the relation of number to all its parts, constitu- 
ting it an actual branch language, sui generis, he possesses likewise 
an infallible meter for eventually deciphering, by direct or indirect 
methods, the precise neat value of all things that in anywise 
concern man. 

9. In the preceding we have all the forces of action of the uni- 
verse, deposited in language, either in an open or an enveloped 
shape. The action of each force, taking place in time, is only 
performed, if consisting of a chain of acts, one link of the series 
after another. The history of that chain of action, if narrated by 
speech of voice or words of writing, can be described in the like 
manner only, by adding word to word, one after another. Such 
chain of action, if long, may, like the life of some men, consist of 
many and various parts, all of which, however, belong to that, one, 
unbroken line, running from the moment of his first, to that of his 
last breath. These various parts of the chain, before the mind can 
form a correct judgment, either of parts or the whole, must be 
strung together, and, in that connected shape, pass the surveying 
review of the mind. The strings or words by which these narra- 
ting parts are tied to one another, owing to the different nature of 
the links, are not in every particular alike, hence forming various 
species, but all equally belonging to one main class. This class of 
words, constituting the ninth, by which the various links of speech, 
narrating action, stating fact or thought, are cemented part to part, 
and all parts to a final whole, is called conjunction. 

10. Now, when reviewing the infinity of combinations that 
have resulted, do, will, and must result, in the flow of time, from 
the endless elements of action in the preceding nine classes of 
words, we find that the final totality of the whole result comes 
home eventually and inevitably to man, the chief actor, and most 
prominent and interested figure in the portentously sublime cosmic 
drama before us ; and, in the shape of weal or woe, happiness or 
misery, expands or depresses, with intensest emotions of joy or 
grief, hope or despair, peace or remorse, delight or pain, affection or 
aversion, surprise or horror, etc., his feeling bosom to such a de- 
gree, that, overwhelmed by the amount or suddenness, or unex- 
pectedness of the shock, or all combined, he is, for a longer or 



ANALYSIS OF THE NATURE OF MAN, ETC. 75 

shorter time, entirely unable to govern or describe the excited state 
of his feelings, but only can indicate its nature by simple sounds or 
words, forcing themselves instinctively out of his breast, such as : 
Oh ! ah ! ho ! alas ! woe ! fie ! dear ! Lord ! great God ! 
which, with other words belonging to the class, all expressive of a 
more or less deep state of astonishment, affection, or interest of a 
positive or negative nature, are called inteijedion. 

11. Emanating, as language self-evidently did and does, from the 
Reason of the human mind, it contains and reveals, beside the ele- 
ments and materials of all knowledge, science, truth, in ready of, and 
needed by man ; the whole code, shelf work, and machinery of the 
intellect's laws, by which to arrange, classify, use, and apply all 
thoughts and things. Hence, after duly understood, it proves 
itself as the natural skeleton, of the grandest, all-comprehending, 
ever-expanding, infallible System of Logic, legitimately sprung, 
through the mind of combined humanity, from the Eternal Reason 
of the Almighty himself. Its correct use has never yet been duly 
understood, as it contains elements of power that surpass all estimates. 
Its correct use will lead man to divine wisdom; show him how to 
reach his greatest goal, and thereby realize the great and glorious 
purpose God had in view when creating man. And, in the above, 
we consider the query of our chapter fully answered. 



• CHAPTER IX. 



ANALYSIS OF THE NATURE OF MAN, SPECIFYING WHAT IT SHOWS. 

1. To analyze a thing means and signifies to examine closely, 
and scrutinize minutely, its several constituent parts, one after 
another. We have done this in the preceding chapter, with the 
language of man : and will now have to do it with the constituent 
forces of his compound being, as we have already found them an- 
nounced in consciousness, as consisting in a unity of a number of 
forces differing from one another among themselves. Our analysis, 
then, will have to show, in what and Jwiv many, these sundry 
forces separately viewed, consist. 
7 



76 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

2. The object and proper office of language actually is the con- 
veyance of truth, residing in fact and thought, in an unmistakable 
form from mind to mind, so that eventually all minds may know, 
so far as capable of compassing, the highest, and best truths seen by 
the intellects most gifted; and, in return, every individual mind, 
adjusted to its capacities, may become possessed of the quintessence 
of the whole knowledge of mankind. 

3. This object can only be reached when the words of language 
are used, as heretofore already indicated, like our figures of num- 
bers, that is, when fixing the thoughts attached to the words, as 
definitely, as the thoughts or conceptions connected with the signs 
of 1, 2, 3, etc., or those attached to a point, straight, broken, or 
curved line, triangle, square, circle, or any other geometrical or 
definite figure. For, upon close examination into the true meaning 
of words, it Avill be discovered that all the words of language, that 
have a domiciliary right in a correct lexicon, are of this very class, 
having as definite a thought and value (being the soul of their body,) 
attached to them, as the thought and value which the calculating 
mathematician affixes to the figures, signs and letters, used in his 
algebraic equations. 

4. Hence the reason that language is not already now used in 
this its only legitimate mode, lies not in language itself; but 
meu themselves are at fault, willingly, where they have the knowl- 
edge of its correct use, involuntarily, where they are ignorant 
thereof. Words being thus, not by any means, an arbitrary com- 
pilation of undefined signs or vascillating forms or sounds, without 
fixed sense or meaning, but the exact contrary, a fixed, external 
vessel, of definite make, form, size, and shape, each containing a 
quantity of thought, of an equally definable nature, quality, and 
amount. Hence, to understand the thoughts of others, and to make 
them understand ours correctly, demands unconditionally a correct 
understanding and use of the words of language. And, as the 
progress of the mind in the collection of knowledge and truth 
hinges upon this pivot, at all events, as far as correct intellectual 
perception is concerned, every man's paramount interest urges him 
to overcome, as speedily as able, whatever defect he may discover 
to attach to his case. 

5. As soon as that difficulty is overcome, every man who loves 



ANALYSIS OF THE NATURE OF MAN, ETC. 77 

the truth will find no further obstacle to disclose the thoughts of 
his intellect, in their actual nature and form, by simply faithfully 
announcing his -phenomena of consciousness, in the shape they present 
themselves therein. 

6. Whatever the actual number of the separate uncountable 
phenomena, consciously occurring within the consciousness of each 
normal man and woman of the whole human race, past and 
present, may amount to ; the digestion of all this vast diversified 
material, by the strongest intellects of all times and ages, has re- 
sulted in its division and distribution into three main or cardinal 
classes; which, although their various attributes, at times, run 
blendingly into one another, and thus, for the moment, defy dis- 
crimination, nevertheless admit of an easy, natural, and, upon the 
whole, permanently reliable classification of all the single phenomena 
known to human consciousness, and doing no violence to its form, 
as existing in any single individual. 

7. As, however, the thoughts and facts that are here to be grasped 
and grouped into one, have, at sundry times and by various 
thinkers, been attached to different terms and definitions, it places 
us in the necessity (in order to make each main idea we design 
to specify, if possible, unmistakably clear to every intellect), to 
endeavor doing so, by occasionally using in the framing of our 
definitions more descriptive words and convertible terms than we 
should otherwise prefer employing. These main constituents of 
man (above indicated) are as follows : 

I. THE MIND ; II. THE SOUL J III. THE BODY. 

I. The mind, intellect or thinking power, manifesting its form as 
a dualism, consisting of the two poles of reason and understanding, 
(termed also common sense) ; the first, reason, being the converse of 
intellect with thought in its own, inherent essence, or infinite relations ; 
the latter, understanding, being the perception of its phenomenal parts, 
or finite relations. The first communing with being or essence, the 
other with existence, as being's herald and essence's manifestation. 
The sphere of mind thus embraces the whole vast laboratory of the 
intellectual operations, beginning with the incipient operation where 
the primary impression of the transient sensual phenomenon, is 
translated by the understanding into a permanent conception of 



78 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

thought, and closing with that highest of Keason's processes, 
wherein, in the all-melting furnace of supreme synthesis, the most 
refractory and heterogeneous materials are fused into one homo- 
geneous, all-embracing generalization. 

II. Tlie Soul, — will, volition, disposition, — or desiring, wishing, 
willing, or enjoying-power, — discloses its form as a dualism, con- 
sisting of the two poles of psychical and physical sensation. In the 
upper pole, — that of psychical sensation, — which may be termed 
the sphere of sensibility, it converses with the object and objects of 
its highest aspirations, deriving from their presence or absence, hap- 
piness or misery ; the first, enhancing joy to the degree of extasy 
and beatitude, — and the latter, sinking sadness, to hopeless grief 
and despondency. Hence, all those superior sensations, affections 
and emotions of man, with their opposites which, we term, and are, 
passions as well as feelings, and the mixed nature of which alter- 
nately discloses the moral, ethical, religious, or opposite preponder- 
ance of the soul's nature and qualities, — belong, with their primary 
effects, all to this sphere : such as love and hatred, friendship and 
enmity, good-will and misanthropy, joy and grief, hope and fear, tran- 
quillity and trouble, gladness and sorrow, courage and cowardice, faith- 
fulness and treachery, constancy and fickleness, etc., etc. The lower 
pole constituting the cycle of physical sensation, mainly seated in 
the sense of feeling, — yet claiming more or less jurisdiction over 
the operation of all the senses, reports its state, alternately, as one 
of pleasure or pain, caused, a.) by forces of external nature, such as 
heat and cold, dry and wet, etc.; b.) by states of the body, as, health 
or sickness, strength or weakness, vigor or exhaustion, etc.; and, c.) from 
ability or disability of supplying these, and the calls of other wants, 
such as, hunger, thirst, fatigue, sexual impulse, need of sleep, etc. 
The detail of these impressions belongs to the analysis of the senses, 
where, in its proper place, it may be looked for. 

III. The body of man, as the dynamically organized common 
instrument of mind as well as soul, — is a dualism composed as ex- 
pressive of strength and beauty, force and sensibility, creative dona- 
tive, and creative receptive power, visibly split by nature into two 
distinct external poles, of which that of donative strength and force 
is deposited in the male, and that of receptive sensibility and beauty, 
is deposited in the female sex ; each thus forming one-half of the 



ANALYSIS OF THE NATURE OF MAN, ETC. 79 

full nature of man, and each absolutely needing the other, to consti- 
tute an entire whole. 

8. In Chap. Ill, \ 7, we have given a definition of fancy and 
imagination. But we there designedly omitted to name and define 
the main and principal feature distinguishing this magic power, 
from all other forces in man, — because the explanation we speak 
of, belongs to this, our present place, and to no other, a.) Fancy, 
with imagination, its finite pole, constitutes the real creative force 
in every individual ; for, the poet, inventor, genius, is only he or she 
who is gifted with it in a superior degree. Now, in like manner, 
as the procreative power of human nature has neither been depos- 
ited in the male nor female, but only one-half thereof distributed 
into each single sex, forcing them to a union, — it alone making 
possible its conjoint use : so creative fancy, the generative force of 
the single individual, can not be considered as either a mere 
appendant to the intellect or the soul, — but each one of them as 
depending thereon, one as much as the other. For, intellect in its 
thoughts, and the soul in its affections, are influenced by, and depend- 
ent upon, its co-operation, in an equal degree. And as the wtuole of 
man, and all his functions need fancy's dualistic offices as indispen- 
sably as do thought and volition, either of which could indeed not exist 
without it ; it will be found, on close inspection, that our converting 
consciousness and fancy into one identical entity, as stated in Chap. 
Ill, bids very fair of proving itself a real discovery in the actual 
mental geography of man, and of an importance not easily to be 
duly estimated at this moment ; but surely to be properly appre- 
ciated, as soon as clearly understood, b.) For, one of the greatest 
causes of men's misery, and their lack of mutual understanding 
and unity in aim and action, is the ignorance until now prevailing 
in the highest sphere of human intellect upon the true construction 
of man's mysterious being; the absence of clear perception of the 
number of its forces, their precedence or relative subordination, the 
appropriate sphere and function of each, and the mode of their 
mutual co-operation. Let us, therefore, only once Jcnoiv man, as 
he really is, as conformed by creative power when coming out of its 
all-loving hand ; and it will not take long to understand what he 
really needs, to prepare for him the letter fate, after which he so 
ardently, so deeply and perpetually sighs, strives and longs. 



80 THE TEMPLE OP TEUTH. 

9. Mind, soul, and body, have each, innately, its own specific needs 
and wants, each differing from those of both the others ; requiring for 
the development of their forces, and the gratification of their ne- 
cessities, each a special education and mode af discipline. For, as they 
conjointly form but one being, they need one another incessantly. 
If, therefore, one or the other is exclusively attended to, to the 
neglect of the others, such favor-showing neglect, will very soon, 
in its painful effects, fall with equal weight upon the whole man, 
and convince him, by facts, that in a partnership-firm of forces, so 
closely and rigidly allied as his, the loss or profit, strength or weak- 
ness, pleasure or pain of each one, are equally those of the 
other two. 

10. The wants and necessities of mind, soul, and body, as indica- 
ting the source and object of their several special aspirations, may be 
expressed in their following demands and wishes : a.) TJie body 
hates weakness, disease, and impotence, desiring health, strength, and 
developed capacity, b.) The soul loathes fear, trouble, grief, enmity 
and hate, and yearns after security, peace, joy, friendship and love. 
c.) The mind hates ignorance, error, falsehood, and their illusions, and 
demands knowledge, science, and truth in their form of absolute cer- 
tainty, d.) Fancy, as representing the whole man, inclosing all 
his forces, as known in consciousness, demands all that is called 
for by a, b, c, to be conjoined to beauty, as the proper form, garb, 
or body, to inclose everything that is lovely, true, and good. If these 
innate aspirations of man's forces are harmoniously gratified as they 
arise, turn by turn, so that the intellect is filled with science and 
wisdom, the soul with virtue and goodness, and the body with 
healthy vigor, engrafted upon disciplined forces ; collectively aspiring 
after ideals, comprising fancy's highest aims, of beauty, wisdom, vir- 
tue, and beatitude : man will be a glorious being, smiled upon by 
heaven, nature, and mankind; and, he himself, be happy, help-md- 
use-fid, wherever you place him. 

11. a.) Man is sometimes defined as being composed of only 
two forces, namely, of spirit and body. When that form of ex- 
pression is used, which is in itself neither incorrect or untrue, let it 
be kept in mind, that it does not contradict, or militate with, our 
division of man, into mind, soul and body ; but only combines 
mind and soul, as really belonging to one another, into one spiritual, 



ANALYSIS OF THE NATURE OF MAN, ETC. 81 

invisible being, giving if, in contradistinction to the visibly tangible 
booty, the name of spirit. But, in order to truly learn what things 
are, no matter whether mental or external, we must all examine 
them p art by part, or analyze them, b.) For no man can tell or guess, 
when going into a store, filled from top to bottom with the most 
diversified stock of goods, what the precise amount and value 
thereof may be, until he has taken an actual and careful invoice. 
But that done, and he knows, for himself as well as others, with 
absolute certainty, what the amount and value are, and is no longer 
in danger of deceiving himself by a random guess at the aggregate 
contents of the bulk, nor being deceived by the interested persua- 
sion of others. 

12. We shall, in due time and place, come to speak of the long- 
contested difference between body and spirit, and are actually now 
preparing our way for doing it in a manner, so sufficiently and 
effectually, that when the labor shall have been performed, it shall 
remain performed for good and all, and never again need a 
doing over. 

13. We have now progressed a considerable way, using therein 
constantly a vast number of materials, derived by the intellect, not 
from its own invisible chamber of thought, but originally all coming 
from nature outside of itself ; being, as it were, the speech to man, 
of that, in one moment, veiled enchanting Isis ; and, in the next, 
of the terrible, riddle-proposing, inexorable-destructive Sphinx. 
Before we can progress any further, it becomes now our duty to 
examine: 1.) How or in what manner nature thus speaks; 2.) 
What its polyglot speaks, through each one of its individual mouths 
or tongues ; and, 3.) What its whole speech by all its voices in the 
end amounts to, purports and DESiGNs/or man and his uses ? These 
mouths or inlets, by which nature speaks to man, and he in return 
converses with it, are his senses, whose speech is termed : sight, 
hearing, touch, smell, taste, and feeling, and whose action and help 
are needed by all and each of the individualized forces of man, 
which we have termed, mind, soul, and body, no less than the 
whole itself, incased into fancy and imagination, as an all-covering 
mantle. 

14. Before closing this chapter let us recur to the caption heading 
it, by our following definition : a.) As we have found consciousness 



82 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

to divide its perception of its main constituent forces easily and 
naturally into mind, soul, and body, the separate forces and disci- 
pline of which we shall have further to show and analyze as we 
progress ; as we have moreover alleged that consciousness, in its 
two poles, presents no other, but only the same phenomena, with 
the two poles of fancy (the ideal and the sensual), and that hence 
both must be identical ; it remains yet to be stated : b.) That fancy 
and imagination, appearing actually to constitute the upper and 
nether consciousness of man, thus inclosing and surrounding all 
the forces of his being ; are by no means that dreaming, merely 
visionary, shadowy unrealness and negative something or nothing 
which, in the opinion and treatment of men and by books, they 
have, until now, been supposed or imagined to be ; but, on the con- 
trary, are the arsenal, the storehouse, the essence, and substance, 
nay proximate source itself, from which mind, soul, and the body of 
man, derive and draw all their main forces, means, modes, helps, 
incitements, aims, and purposes to their conjoint or individual 
action, inasmuch as neither of them can move a peg, do or attempt 
the least thing, wherein this quasi amnipresent spirit-being, is not 
an indispensable partner, not only furnishing the main material of 
the whole act and action ; but surrounding with and inclosing act 
and actor within, as it were, a mantle woven of mental substance and 
life-essence, the limits of which are perceptible and definable nowhere. 



CHAPTER X 



OBSERVATIONS AND FACTS PREPARATORY TO THE ANALYSIS OF 

MAN'S SENSES. 

1. Man, a reasoning, sentient living being, incased in a body 
" wonderfully and fearfully made," exists, according to the report of 
all his senses thereupon, as far as it goes, in a finite physical form, 
as an individual creature. The surface of this body seems, by its 
skin, hair, and nails, to be the dividing partition between him and 
an endless ocean of existence, thickly studded with countless u things 
of life," and without, "wonderful to behold," of all which, as of him- 



ANALYSIS OF MAN'S SENSES. 83 

self, he brings not one single ray of knowledge with him, when 
entering the world an unconscious newly-born babe. 

2. If, unfortunately, the little babe should happen to be born not 
only a deaf mute, without hearing, but also additionally, like poor 
Laura Bridgman* either without eyesight, or lose it when a babe, — 
how will you know whether it does think? And,, in case, if: how 
will you be able to effect an interchange between its imprisoned 
thought and your own ? You can impart no thought from man to 
man, by the senses of smell, taste, and feeling, but only through sight, 
hearing, and touch or tact. 

3. Fortunately for little Laura, her fingers were formed normally, 
and hence the organ of touch in a proper condition. More fortu- 
nately for herself, as well as of infinite importance to mankind and 
science, was the circumstance that she fell into the hands of Doctor 
Howe, a Pestalozzian thinker, who, for her sake, his own, and 
science' sake, by most patient efforts and persevering experiments, 
made with and by her sense of touch, finally most gloriously suc- 
ceeded to establish between her and himself, a limited bridge of 
thought, sufficient for giving her mind some educational instruc- 
tion, and enabling it to commune, by receiving and imparting 
thought to a certain extent, — but all-sufficient for settling forever 
an oft and much mooted question, by incontestably proving the 
inherent existence of thought in man 's being, prior to, and independent 
of, any and all instruction from the three higher senses, ivhich alone 
convey thought from mind to mind. 

<£. Now, if little Laura had, by some defect or malformation in 
her fingers, also been destitute of the sense of touch (for, in a case 
like hers, the touch residing less perfectly in the toes, could hardly 
have served the purpose), or if her good fortune had not brought 
her in contact with such a thoughtful humane teacher, — the thought 
within her would have remained a most lonesome prisoner, while 



* Laura Bridgman was born in Hanover, N. H., on Dec. 21, 1829. Before she was 
two years old, she lost, by disease, not only her eyes, entirely, but so also her sense of 
hearing and smell, and her taste became much blunted, — so that the sense of touch and 
feeling were alone left. On the 4th of October, 1837, Doctor Howe, President of the 
Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum of the Blind, at Boston, took her under 
his charge ; and by all-conquering perseverance, effected her education to a degree, so as 
to attract the admiration of the whole thinking world. [For further particulars, see — 
Chambers' 1 Miscellany, vol. iii, Edinb. W. & R. Chambers, 1854 ; Art. L. Bridgman. 



84 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

the spark of life did glow ; and tuition, instruction, or progress, 
would have been an absolute impossibility. Hence, deprivation 
by birth or accident in childhood, of the three superior senses, leav- 
ing man only those of smell, taste, and feeling, — inevitably renders 
him, as long as miserable existence endures, a mass of breathing, 
imbecile idiocy, beyond all hope and power of redemption. For, 
in this state, isolated from all nature, its forces, all mind and 
thought around and outside of its own, — the divine spark of the 
individual intellect, is incarcerated in a dungeon with walls so im- 
penetrable and thick, leaving no crevice whatever, as a possible 
passage for the smallest igniting ray that might kindle the latent 
ethereal spark into conscious self-illuming blaze. 

5. This, then, will suffice to show us the necessity of the senses ; 
not only because, without their assistance, we remain helpless and 
imbecile, and their action making us acquainted with nature, its 
forces, their qualities and mode of action : but convinces us, like- 
wise, that the mind can only become acquainted with its own 
nature, after it has been taught in the school of nature, to learn what 
knowledge, fact, and thought in reality are, and by what process they 
are translated into the form of truth. 

6. The analysis of the senses, and the real contents thereof, is 
therefore, in itself, a procedure of no ordinary importance. But it 
becomes immeasurably more so, from the astounding, almost in- 
credible fact, that, actually, after the existence of soi-disant phi- 
losophy, upon this globe, of some three or four thousand years, it is 
still quite "a new thing under the sun," as the necessity of its per- 
formance seems never before to have struck a philosophical intel- 
lect of adequate abilities, in a light sufficiently clear, so as to induce 
it making the attempt. 

7. From this neglect of man's intellect, in subduing to its perfect 
knowledge and control the only channels of converse and com- 
merce, whereby, alone, nature can be approached and truly become 
hwwn, as it is, and not as dreamed to he, — have resulted those dire 
effects, forever, and everywhere, inseparable from a state of anarchy 
and chaos, in any realm of existence. For, as all human action, in 
all its inferior spheres, proceeds from intellect, as the highest of all, 
there can not possibly exist unity and harmony in the lower planes, 
as long as feud and discord rule in the uppermost. Hence, the state 



OBSERVATIONS, ETC., RELATIVE TO MAN'S SENSES. 85 

of uncertainty and skepticism, ruling, until now, in the empire of 
mind, could manifest itself in that of the soul, in no other shape 
than as dominion of unruly passion and discomfort, producing as a 
prolific source, in its turn, pain and misery without end, upon the 
body of suffering humanity. 

8. a.) Hence it came that idealism, knowing its position as supe- 
rior and true, but not knowing the true language of nature and its 
great main ultimate fact, lost the strength and advantage of its 
truth, for, and its effect upon, itself, and therein the victorious power, 
existing in the combination of the two, to secure its final ever- 
enduring triumph in the utter annihilation of the anarchical forces 
of its chaotic adversary. b.) But, ignorant of nature, and thereby 
only half, and but dreamingly, knowing itself, Idealism was fool 
enough to misconceive the vast value of nature and its glorious 
field to such a degree, so as not only to resign and disclaim its in- 
nate, indefeasible right of possession to the inexhaustible treasure, 
but actually turning it over to an ignorant, insignificant quack pre- 
tender, yclept materialism, — " a fellow marked by the hand of nature," 
and destitute of real intellect and primary force, — but becoming 
formidable by being thus put in possession of another party's prop- 
erty, by that party's deluded hallucination. The empyric, being 
thus raised by sheer accident, from a real nothing to an apparent 
something, by being made the possessor of strong, formidable powers, 
took great airs on himself, — deriding the madness of the silly one 
that had made him rich, purchased troops of friends by his vast 
illegitimately-gotten wealth ; and whilst, all the time, conscious 
of possessing what does not belong to him, — continues to humbug the 
world, by din, buzz, clamor, noise, and show, to divert its searching 
eye from looking at the moonshine foundation of his usurped title 
and power. 

9. Depriving itself thus madly of wealth, resources and nourish- 
ment, Idealism became lean, lank, mean, visionary, and spectre- 
like, and assuming a haughty, misanthropic, and hostile attitude 
to nature and man, — was shunned by both, as an unearthly appari- 
tion, — a ghost, belonging to super-mundane regions. Not dreaming 
of the infinite value of the testimony of the senses, for regaining, 
in a final court of justice, its foolishly alienated rights, Idealism 
went on, stimulated by its centralized feeling and need of unity, 



86 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

arrogantly and presumptuously assuming and supposing that multi- 
plicity could not co-exist primarily in, and with unity, to invalidate 
the credibility of the senses, combat, assail, and even slander and 
defame their report as false, unreliable and untrue, and thus injure 
their character, and destroy their reputation, for rectitude and vera- 
city, wherever, and as much, as it could. 

10. The senses being thus by Idealism descried as liars and 
cheats, and "vi et armis" driven over to the camp of its foe, — the 
latter had no hard work to avenge them, for his own specific benefit 
and use, in making the world at large believe, that a force throwing 
first away its inherited patrimony, and then driving away the friends 
of its household, and forcing them against their consent and will, to 
range themselves on the side of its enemy : could be no less than 
mad and insane, but nevertheless altogether harmless and visionary, 
because thereby depriving itself of all means and weapons, to do any, 
and the least, injury to those whom it proclaimed as its opponents 
and foes. 

11. The importance of the senses, and their indispensable neces- 
sity to man, — is so palpable and glaring, that no man of sane mind 
can, for one single moment, remain in doubt thereof. If misfor- 
tune by birth or infancy, as we above have shown, (§ 4), had de- 
prived the future idealist of his three superior senses, his idealism 
would surely have undisturbedly slumbered, as long as his life had 
lasted on this earth. If, moreover, he had obtained through his 
senses no reliable impressions of any sort, he never could have 
existed long enough to become acquainted with the great truth and 
glorious ideas, residing within the centre of his intellect. 

12. Hence, if you look at the two helpless little babes, each now 
lying slumbering in a mother's tender lap, each one appearing to 
all eyes as the most insignificant thing, when compared with the 
boundless Universe around them : yet there is a something within 
these little ones, that, if not deprived of the use of the channels 
binding it to outside existence, will, one day, flare up into a power 
of majestic grandeur, — in the presence of which, the majesty and 
magnitude of this very Universe itself, will shrink, bow, and do 
homage to the superior majesty in that little man. While the un- 
fortunate little one, whose channels continue or become choked 
or closed, remains your helpless object of pity, even more than now. 



OBSERVATIONS, ETC., RELATIVE TO MAX'S SENSES. 87 

13. That feeble small body you see before you, now a dark 
dwelling, with no perceptible light in it of any sort, lacking at pres- 
ent even the openings to let light in, — has, nevertheless, six won- 
derful windows, each one being an eye to disclose a world of miracles, 
primarily so essentially different from all the rest, as to constitute 
the object thereof, when closely beheld, — a real universe with sep- 
arate laws of action in itself. These six windows are that tender 
child's senses, by-and-by opening, to let in their streams of light, 
as, by growth, it gathers force beneficially to use it. 

14. Long before it could comprehend the mode of their opera- 
tion, nature by inherent necessity, forces the child to develop these 
senses, by their constant and incessant use. The lessons it receives 
by their instruction, constitute those of an enduring primary school, 
which, if its tuition is duly attended to and heeded, will lead to a 
higher, wherein it may consummate its science of wisdom, being the 
science of indubitable certainty or absolute truth, to which nature by 
the senses, shows the way, and furnishes most of the indispensable 
material. A long while after youthful man has been schooled by 
the phenomena of the senses, and not until the developed intellect 
has already become strong and expert enough to duly and clearly 
discriminate phenomena, impression, fact, thought, and truth, all 
from one another, and the whole thereof from the beholding intel- 
lect itself, — is the mind enabled and disposed to prosecute inquiries 
like the one now on our hands, with any reasonable prospect 
of success. 

15. The senses of man, never before yet receiving his full ana- 
lyzing attention, have, from that reason, since time immemorial, 
until recently, been considered by all the world as being hut five in 
number, not perceiving that touch and feeling are entirely distinct and 
different from one another. All these different senses, each revealing 
to man an aspect, composition, and construction, in and of its 
special department of nature, totally differing in its mode and kind 
of impression upon him, from all the rest, possess this main feature 
in common, that they each act, and are acted upon by and through 
their own proper and exclusive organ, consisting in a peculiar con- 
struction of highly sensitive nerves. 

16. When, by the excitation of these nerves, they are so acted 
upon by the sundry forces of nature, we call the sensation ex- 



88 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

perienced in the organ of each sense, an impression, and the proxi- 
mate external cause producing such impression, we term a phe- 
nomenon; meaning an apparition. The senses thus acted upon are, 
during that very operation, superintended by that pole of the mind, 
termed understanding. For, when this attention of the understand- 
ing is entirely absent, by being, while a phenomenon impresses a 
sense, elsewhere, absorbed ly engaged, the impression amounts to 
nothing ; as the mind has taken no notice thereof, and only that ob- 
ject existing for the mind, for the time being, which it is looking at, and 
nothing else. 

17. As soon, however, as such impression has duly been made, 
upon any sense, the understanding, as far as able, translates it into 
a tJwught, representing its nature and value, termed a conception ; 
and in that shape of thought, reports it with all the circumstances 
constituting the fact of its occurrence, to the higher tribunal of the 
mind, termed reason, to be there dealt with as deemed proper. The 
countless number of impressions thus made by the permanent ope- 
rations of e ver- acting phenomena upon the regular machinery of the 
ever-recipient senses, have, by the ^^-classifying operations of 
man's understanding, been reduced to a moderate, even small, 
number of classes of permanent impressions, embodying the sum 
total of the fixed features of nature ; therein showing, what nature 
is for man, and what and how much, he can know thereby and therein, 
with certainty, of their mutual and permanent relations to one 
another. 

18. These classes of permanent impressions upon man's senses, 
constitute the elements of all his knowledge of nature, and the 
various combinations thereof, termed science : forming thus the sub- 
stratum underlying the order and stability prevailing in nature 
throughout the universe ; their closest examination becomes of para- 
mount importance ; for the mind can never expect to truly learn, 
fully to know, and understand itself, until it can define what nature 
is, as well in its thought thereof, as in its exterior subsistence. 

19. Before proceeding to their special examination, let it be noted, 
that the senses all operate upon man, as it were, by or upon a 
sliding scale of increasing or lessening distance ; beginning at the 
centre and progressing from it toward the circumference ; or vice 
versa, when commencing at the periphery, approaching by measured 



OBSERVATIONS, ETC., RELATIVE TO MAN'S SENSES. 89 

steps toward the centre, that centre being the sense of feeling. 
Thus, a,) the sense of feeling is present in the whole body, where 
ever the least branch of a nerve is found ramifying out from the 
great nervous trunk, and feels pain or pleasure, when touched by 
the exciting object, as it were, in its very vitals of real self, b.) The 
sense of taste, one, the first step further, or off, from the centre, is 
experienced properly only in its organs in the mouth; hence, as it 
were, in the very door by which things enter into physical man, to 
be there prepared for a more proximate union impending, c.) The 
sense of smell is touched only as a step further from the centre, 
not by the body of things themselves, but as it were, by the gaseous 
spirits thereof, emanating as effluvia into the surrounding atmos- 
phere, which, inhaled by breathing, gives the objects of smell an 
involuntary ingress into the nostrils, denoting to man the nature of the 
air he is inhaling, d.) The sense of touch, tact, or form, the fourth 
from the centre, residing mainly in the tips of the fingers, and par- 
tially in those of the toes, conversing with the surface of things by 
actual contact only, operates, as it were, upon the boundary line, 
where man's and the body of things really meet, e.) The sense 
of hearing, as the fifth offward from the centre, being the percep- 
tion of forces in motion, by medium of agitated air, striking the 
nerves of the ear, takes cognizance of the operating actors in the 
case as all outside of man, more or less distant. But this distance 
has its law and its fixed limits in the nature of the atmosphere 
itself ; prescribing to sound, also, the velocity in the measure of its 
motion. For neither the roar of battle-fields, nor the claps of the 
most terrific thunder, can reach beyond the limits, corresponding to 
their force. The average velocity of sound is a progress of about 
one thousand feet in a second of time. /.) Sight, finally, man's 
sixth, highest and noblest sense, reports to him the converse with 
objects at a distance almost surpassing his conception. For the eye 
can. from a high elevation, on a mountain, or in a balloon, in a clear 
atmosphere, not only at a glance, take in a panoramic picture of the 
whole aspect of the earth, as far as its natural power of vision, and 
the spherical form of the surface admits ; but also cast its eagle 
ken, in a bright night, into that unmeasured deep, above its head, 
where countless flaming worlds, glorify forever, that ineffable power 
in whom they and the eye co-exist. The velocity of light is nine 



90 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

hundred and seventy-five thousand times greater than that of 
sound, as it travels forty-four thousand geographical miles in a 
single second of time. 

20. The senses divide themselves naturally into two classes, to 
each of which a separate and specific function has been assigned, 
differing from that of the other, a.) Sight, hearing, and touch, 
furnishing all those definite and specific impressions, from near and 
far, upon which man's conception of nature, its things, the universe 
and its laws are mainly based ; may be considered as the superior 
senses ; as all clear knowledge, science, and wisdom, depend 
primarily on the elements they contribute. Their office unmis- 
takably is to be man's tutor and sentinel, first, to make known to 
him the form, shape, constitution and laws of things and the uni- 
verse, so that he may know and use the same, in accordance with 
his own inherent nature ; and, next, be forewarned neither to trans- 
gress these laws from ignorance or frivolity, nor, from the same 
cause, fall a victim to the terrific forces that individualized are found 
to exist in nature's vast, ever-agitated domain, b.) The senses of 
smell, taste, and feeling, are pre-eminently sentinels to man of pro- 
tection and self-preservation, against those subtle hostile forces, 
threatening him with pain and death, whose form and nature is of 
a kind as to escape sight and hearing as well as touch. But these 
senses constitute, at the same time, the medium of enjoyment and 
perception of individual happiness or misery. For if, by disease 
or weakness, man is zprey to torture, pain and debility, and thereby 
disabled from participating in rejoicings with his like ; he could, as 
long as such state endures, not be happy if he were surrounded by 
the beatitude of heaven itself; as the organs whereby to enjoy it 
are already combatingly preoccupied with opposite impressions and 
feelings. Hence these three senses will find it highly their ad- 
vantage, if they allow themselves to be taught and instructed by 
their larger brethren, called sight, touch, and hearing, as thereby 
they may avoid a great deal of needless pain, and secure a vast 
amount of joy and happiness, that surpasses all their contracted 
apprehension, c.) For sight indicates to man, already from the 
form, appearance, and motion of things, often when merely per- 
ceived at a great distance, such as inspire him with fear and terror, 
what he may expect to experience therefrom, for his feelings, when 






ANALYSIS OF THE PHENOMENA OF SIGHT. 91 

coming with them into close quarters. Such, for instance, as 
approaching tornadoes, conflagrations threatening to encircle, wild 
beasts to attack, him, etc., etc. Hearing discloses the nature of the 
actors already in closer proximity ; and, as it hears their inmost 
speech in the tune, tone, or sound of the tempered, tranquil, or 
angry- wild action ; it discloses therein the friendly or hostile essence 
of the actors toward itself, and gives due notice thereof to the rest 
of the senses. Touch, finally, whose action, by actual contact, as- 
certains the texture, woof, density, consistence, temperature, and 
surfacial essence of things, at once informs all the senses, of the 
nature of its report in the case. And, as all the senses combinedly 
have very good reasons for believing that brother touch is an uner- 
ring witness, as long as directed by a clear head ; they are all very 
alert in heeding its suggestions, as well they may, whenever made. 



CHAPTER XI. 

ANALYSIS OF THE IMPRESSIONS UPON THE SENSE OF SIGHT BY 
THE PHENOMENA OF NATURE. 

THE EYE. 
Know ye, on tend'rest ground, the picture, 

Whose brightness, light, are gifts its own ; 
In every hour it is another, 

Yet fresh and whole is ever shown: 
Executed in space most narrow, 

The smallest frame does it inclose, 
Yet all the greatness which man touches 

He only by this picture knows I 

And can you name to me the crystal 

Whose worth does every gem surpass! 
It shines forever, without burning, 

Absorbs the world within its glass: 
Yea, heaven itself is painted even 

Within its ring, most wonderful ; 
That beaming from it, than that given, 
Is often much more beautiful. 

[Schiller's Turandot. 
1. The inestimable value of real treasures is often forgotten to 
be duly appreciated by man, as long as he remains in the routine 
8 



92 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

of their undisturbed enjoyment and possession ; while those, born 
without the same, know their value, a priori, by the evils attending 
their deprivation. And when, eventually, good-fortune sometimes 
restores to these latter possession of a great gift of nature never 
before enjoyed, the estimate they then place thereupon, indicates 
its true value for all men. 

2. Hence, it is recorded that an intelligent youth, being born 
blind, but receiving as good an education while blind, as was pos- 
sible to give in that state, was successfully operated upon, when 
near the age of maturity, by a highly skillful oculist. The 
operator, when and immediately after thus fortunately restoring to 
the blind his sight, and wishing to know what were the first im- 
pressions made upon a rational being, by" the gift of sight, at 
such an age, after having lived always in absolute darkness, without 
the remotest conception of light and its object, asking him, just at 
the moment when sight was for the first time exercised : " What 
is it you see, my son f" The extatic reply of the youth (im- 
pressed from the never-before imagined magnificence of creation), 
was : "I see the glory of God !" 

3. Each of the five exterior, senses (for feeling resides in the 
interior of man), like every thing else, must have a medium or 
tool by, and an object upon, which to act. The medium, as the 
only known one, by which sight acts, is that effulgent, bright, 
brilliant, dazzling force of nature, known to us by the name of 
light. The objects of sight are the visible universe, and the things 
it contains. The first act of sight, in casting its glance upon crea- 
tion, is in its nature a synthesis, compressing the whole of what it 
sees, into one unitary picture. The very next act thereafter, is an 
analysis of that whole, by a closer and more special examination 
of those parts thereof, which, from some cause or other, attract its 
attention more than the rest. This action of combining, or be- 
holding things synthetically, and next, again, looking analytically 
upon their separate parts, alternates incessantly throughout man's 
whole life. 

4. Sight is informed (by the after light of experience and science), 
that the eye, by which it acts, is an organ constructed upon the 
principle of optics, receiving its impressions of the rays of light and 
the images of things, upon the supremely sensitive retina of the 



ANALYSIS OF THE PHENOMENA OF SIGHT. 93 

pupilla, and reflecting them like a doubly operating mirror. The 
impression of strength or intensity, or the presence and absence of 
a more or less in the force of light itself, facilitating vision, or the 
contrary, sight denotes by brilliant, clear, dim, or obscure light 

5. A.) Space. Sight, by one synthetical, all-combining impres- 
sion discovers that light, its modified degrees, termed colors, and 
all things to which they attach, which it terms bodies, — exist with 
itself, in common, within one large, immeasurable expansion, cavity, 
hollow, or indefinable vessel, which is present everywhere, filling 
itself and all things, being around all things, and in all things, hav- 
ing its centre everywhere, and discoverable circumference nowhere, 
which it terms Space, a.) Unity number. — Looking thus upon space 
and all its contents conjointly, as one consolidated whole, and next 
upon space and its contents as separated and distinct from each 
other, sight sees therein : One and many, unity and multitude, whole 
and parts, or the impression of oneness and number, b.) Size and 
magnitude, mass and quantity : As sight perceives the whole to be 
different from all its separate parts, and these parts again to differ 
among themselves, — it terms the perception of this primary differ- 
ence, size and magnitude, mass and quantity. Size, it terms the im- 
pression resulting from the perception, that the whole of a thing 
fills more space than any of its parts ; and one thing or part more 
than another. Magnitude, — Sight calls the impression from the 
comparison of one size with another, terming one large, the other 
small. Mass it names the impression from one coherent bulk, — 
and quantity, a mass of assembled parts. The measure of mass, 
sight finds to be in size, that of quantity residing in number. 

B. Division of Space. Length, b-eadth, hight, depth. — As the 
seeing eye resides in a fixed locality of a body, having likewise its 
fixed relations to the spot it occupies on earth, and with the earth 
to its constellation in nature, the universe, and space : and seeing 
the location of all things, in the various portions of space they 
occupy, differ variously and materially from its own, and as no less 
of all of them among themselves : sight is led to discover, that 
absolute space and the universe in it, is inherently partitioned off 
by three great eternal lines of indefinite extent, into various com- 
partments, — two of which lines running horizontally, and cutting 
each other at right angles, form a regular cross; while the third, 



94: THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH, 

descending perpendicularly from on high, piercing their point of 
contact rectangularly, proceeds into boundless infinity. From 
these lines and the figure they form, though themselves invisible to 
the eye, sight perceives the various divisions of space, underlying 
all vision, thereby permanently and forever made, in relation to the 
position or location occupied by any thing, at any moment of time, 
defining those lines by the name of length and breadth, and hight 
or depth. 

a.) Locality, — home, — their fixation. The spot 'perceived by 
Sight, as occupied in space by any thing, at any time, it calls place, 
location, locality, — and defines its fixation, or position, by com- 
parison and reference to stationary points in the solar system, and 
the locality of sight when impressed by the phenomena. 

1). ) That locality of sight, when reporting its own relations or those 
of other things, is always, for it or them, their momentary home, being 
the point or centre, where the lines of length, breadth, and hight 
(or depth), avss and pierce one another ; and viewed from that fixed 
realistic-ideal standpoint or home, permanently filled by each thing 
or being, for itself, as well as others, as far as use is concerned, the 
relative location and position of all other things, is measured and 
defined. That central point or spot is its never-changing, unitary 
liome or here, in the moment ruling the case ; every thing out of 
its centre is an ever-foreign, many-headed there or yonder, for- 
ever renewing the question, where ? 

c.) Proximity, distance, — their figure. Seated in its own, or 
the local centre or home of other things, — sight answers that ques- 
tion as often as needful, making for itself meters of fixed or com- 
parative lines of space, — and by them, as things come within, 
approach to, or recede from, its own sphere or home, it terms the 
impression of the relation, proximity or distance, calling the same, 
in and out, near and far, and its modifying figure and form: before 
and behind, right and left, up and down, above and below, within and 
ivitlwut, inside and alongside, over and under, high and low, long and 
short, broad and contracted, wide and narrow, and terms of similar 
import, already noticed in Chap, viii, \ 7, in analyzing the preposi- 
tions of language. 

C.) Shape, figure, form, and their elements. — As a leading 
difference noted by sight in the impression of things upon it, it 



ANALYSIS OF THE PHENOMENA OF SIGHT. 95 

observes in the absence or presence of definite outlines circum- 
scribing their bulk. The first class, it terms shapeless, and the 
second it calls shaped, and discovers some things to be more defi- 
nitely so than others, a.) Any thing, possessing the slightest surfacial 
image, enabling its external appearance of producing a special impres- 
sion as a whole, Sight terms shape, b.) Where to shape is added, per- 
ceptibly definite outlines, sight denotes such shape as figure, c.) 
Where the figure is composed of parts regularly combined, vision 
terms it form, d.) Sight further perceives the elements from the 
various combinations of an adequate variety and number whereof, 
all the concrete or possible shapes and forms in the universe are 
combined. These it terms, 1.) The single point; 2.) the regular 
combination of a number of points, forming the straight line ; 3.) the 
broken line, forming with the former, the triangle, — and by doubling 
itself, the square ; 4.) the regularly bent or curved line, forming, 
by its completion, the circle, — and by its irregular and arbitrary ex- 
tension and deviation, any shape, figure, or form, the imagination 
may suggest. 

D.) Kest, Motion, Inertness, Force. — Sight perceives its objects 
and their condition in two diametrically opposite states, either fixed 
to a place or locality, or at times, in the act of changing the same 
for another. The first of these states it calls rest, the second mo- 
tion. Some things sight always perceives occupying the same 
place, in the same manner, and devoid of all inlierent capacity and 
proclivity to change either, until violently forced therefrom by 
exterior causes, and driven to occupy another, but returning to their 
first state instantly, when the cause ceases to act. The inherent 
sluggishness and absence of capacity and inclination in things to 
motion, visible to sight only by its effect, enduring rest, it terms 
inertness, gravity, or passive resistance. The unknown cause, over- 
coming this resisting inertness, visibly active in the motion of 
things, sight terms force. This invisible cause or force, thus pro- 
ducing this alternation between the states of rest and motion in 
things, sight can not itself perceive, but takes cognizance of the 
forms through which, and while, it acts. These are : 

E.) Force, Power, Strength, — Vegetation; Chemical and Phys- 
cial power ; Vitality, a.) Sight perceives things and forms, fixed to 
one spot, springing up imperceptibly, but steadily increasing and 



96 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

enlarging their form ; and, after a longer or shorter time, either 
gradually again decay and disappear, or become changed or de- 
composed by exterior forces. Perceiving thus, by steady change, 
the presence of an inherent force controlling the accretion of cumu- 
lating parts ; sight terms this whole class of phenomena, vegetation, 
and considers its formative force or configurating principle, as un- 
conscious life, or unvitalized organism, b.) Sight perceives by con- 
stant changes proceeding all around, forces active everywhere, on the 
smallest as well as on the most stupendous scale. Here the death- 
like, inert mass is corroded and oxydized, or molten and burned to 
cinders. Yonder, huge bulks are decomposed by silent rot ; next, 
all nature is regularly forced to change her face, aspect, and robes ; 
now freezing the liquids into solids ; then thawing them again into 
liquids, and again volatilizing them into floating, gaseous invisi- 
bility. Then there are often awfully-terrificly sublime manifesta- 
tions of boundless force. Here, lightning demolishing most durable 
things in an instant ; there, conflagration defying all resistance until 
all food is consumed ; yonder, the horrifying fire-vomiting volcano, 
in unutterable well-founded pride, deriding man as beneath its no- 
tice ; here, the yawning earthquake engulfing, and there the de- 
vastating tornado sweeps all before it. These natural forces, 
denomnated chemical and physical, may fitly be named lifeless, unor- 
ganized, unconscious 'power. Sight does not see the same, but per- 
ceives its action by the motion of the smallest to the most tre- 
mendous masses, impelled by its force, or the reduction or 
annihilation of complicated forms and compositions into their 
rudimentary elements. 

c.) Finally, sight perceives forms or things, alternately in each of 
the two states, now at rest, then again in motion, absolutely im- 
pelled by no visible exterior cause, showing an inherent capacity to 
go from one into the other at pleasure, or endowed with the power 
of locomotion. Sight, Jcnowing itself as the active exercise of such a 
principle within, consisting in spontaneous, living, voluntary force, 
calls it life organized, or power of vitality, and its application to any 
given objector purpose, sight denotes, in its effects, by the name of 
strength. 

d.) Thus sight is conversant with four different classes of forces, 
all engaged in their way and place in controlling the inertia inherent 



ANALYSIS OF THE PHENOMENA OF SIGHT. 9? 

in inanimate bulk. 1.) The various elementary chemical forces 
concerned in the composition or decomposition of that bulk itself; 
2.) The formative configurating force constituting the domain of 
vegetation ; 3.) The unorganized forces, or physical powers con- 
trolling the vast operations of nature, and, 4,) The force of vitality 
constituting the strength of living beings. Sight, when perceiving 
large masses of lifeless inert bulk, disturbed in their deathlike 
repose, and whirled, slowly or rapidly, from one place to another, 
to a greater or smaller distance, or perceiving vast mechanical com- 
binations, of many ponderous parts, constructed by man's hand, 
and kept in motion by wind, water, fire, or other motors found in 
nature ; or perceiving animated bodies, of larger or smaller size, 
move through space at various grades of velocity, producing sundry 
actions controlling their own body, and other bodies, with or 
without life, at the same time ; sight, distinguishing the effect from 
the cause, and the place where each resides, calls the invisible 
cause, producing the motion visibly seen by its eye, force, yower, 
strength. By force it denotes the powers acting in nature ; by 
power, generally, nature's forces, controlled by man ; and by 
strength it designates the force inherent in a living body or being. 

F. Sight perceives all the things and forces around it, engaged in 
a state of perpetual action and reaction upon one another, pro- 
ducing an infinity of effects, of the most diversified kinds. All 
these actions and effects, sight perceives connected with, and condi- 
tioned by, states, inherent in the shapes and forms of things and 
forces, resulting from the elementary combination of rudimental 
materials. These states it terms composition, construction, quality. 

a.) Composition, sight perceives as existing in all things, whether 
inorganized or organized, dead or living, and terms its elements : 
solid, liquid, fluid, aeriform, gaseous, fiery, and corroding, existing 
pure or in various mixtures, checking and balancing one another. 

b.) Construction, — Sight perceives, superadded to composition, 
in organized and living forces, in the order whereby the various 
parts of their inner structure and exterior form are conjoined 
and combined. 

c.) Quality, — Sight perceives as inherent in all things, as insep- 
arable from the elements of composition, and the nature of con- 
struction and form. Its perception of tne modifications thereof, it 



98 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

terms : a.) dead or alive ; h.) hard or soft ; c.) rigid or elastic ; 
d.) brittle or tough. ; e.) rough or smooth ; /.) sharp or dull ; g.) 
straight or crooked ; h.) round or cornery ; i.) even or uneven ; 
&.) adhesive or slippery ; I.) wet or dry ; m.) strong or weak ; n.) 
light or heavy ; o.) fluid, liquid, or solid ; etc., etc.; most of which 
we will meet again, when speaking of the sense of touch. For, let 
it here be noted, that there are a considerable number of impres- 
sions, common to all the senses, each denoting its impression from 
the causing phenomenon by the same name, though its special feel- 
ing therein experienced is specific, and altogether its own. 

6. Color. — As in the total absence of all light, the eye can not 
see, — but all individual things are swallowed up into an awful 
ocean of hideous and terrific darkness, wherein all colors indiscrim- 
inately disappear : this single fact proves that light is alike the 
main cause and source of colors, as it is of the perception of the shape 
and form of things. 

a.) Light, diffusing itself over the surface of all things, capable of 
being objects of sight, each of which, having, from its combination, 
form and qualities, a surrounding atmosphere of its own, resulting 
from the vapors of its chemical forces, whereby it specifically ab- 
sorbs, modifies, and reflects the light falling upon it, by an action 
analogous to echo, or the reverberation of sound, — differing not 
only as more or less, but also effecting a change in the nature of 
the forces thus combining, producing a new kind. 

V.) Hence, the light so reflected, shows various grades of dis- 
tance from its origin and source. These grades we conjointly range 
under the class-name of color. Five of these colors emanate from 
light, in a regular progress from more to less, as follows ; a.) white 
b.) yellow ; c.) red ; d.) blue ; e.) black. 1.) Pure white, may be 
considered as light incorporated, — like its opposite, the last extreme, 
deepest black, represents darlcness materialized, 2.) Yellow, is a 
white, saturated with opaque particles ; as the white-washed kitchen 
turns yellowish by saturation from fumes and smoke. 3.) Bed, is a 
deepened yellow, as the yelk of the egg is gradually changed by 
the brooding of the fowl, into the red color of blood. 4.) Blue, is a 
downward progress from the red, — by absence of caloric and kin- 
dred forces, toward the black. For, when you take a blue bar 
of steel, heating it in a strong fire, it becomes red, when very hot. 



ANALYSIS OF THE PHENOMENA OP SIGHT. 99 

When, letting it cool down, it first becomes violet, and then again 
turns into blue. 5.) Black, is the final consummation of blue, — for 
blue in its deepest saturation borders so closely upon the black, that 
the naked vision can discover no line of demarkation. These five 
colors, which may be considered as primary, — produce, by regular 
combination, the following compounds, appropriately termed second- 
ary, in which light is increased or decreased, respecting approxima- 
tion toward it, in proportion to its presence or absence in the 
mixing ingredients. 6.) Gray; produced by mixing white and 
black, the two primary extremes. 7.) Green; from the combination 
of yellow and black or yellow and blue, you obtain the green. 8.) 
Brown; from the combination of the centre with the last extreme, 
that is, from red and black you obtain brown. 9.) Pink ; from the 
combination of that same centre with the first extreme, that is, red 
and white, you get the pink. 10.) Violet; the centre red, and its 
sable neighbor blue, produce, in their transition from one into the 
other (as we have already seen, in No. 4, with the bar of steel), the 
violet. 11.) Orange; the centre red, mixed with its forerunner yel- 
low, produces the orange. 12.) Mud; the mixture of the preceding 
eleven colors, produces an unpleasant compound, of the hue 
of mud. 

c.) As white and black represent light and darkness corporeal- 
ized, and serve only to increase or decrease the one or the other, 
in the colors to which they are admixed, competent authorities 
have often suggested that they really are no colors themselves, and 
should, therefore, not be considered as strictly belonging to the list. 
The same holds good of No. 12, the mud color, as not being really 
a distinct color of and in itself, but rather an ingredient, whose 
admixture serves to soil and vitiate the brilliancy and purity of 
other colors. 

d.) If, then, white, mud, and black, are not really colors, they are, 
at least, negative colors, standing in the same relation toward colors, 
in which zero (0) the negative in figures or ciphers, stands toward 
all the rest of numbers, to be used as occasion may require. Sub- 
tracting, then, white, mud, and black, from the proper category of 
colors, and calling them zeros of a threefold kind, we would, in 
numbers 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, have nine real colors left, 
corresponding preciselv, when vou add a zero in every composition, 
9 



100 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

with the ten elements in arithmetic, and the ten classes of words 
in language, — in which latter, the class of interjections corresponds, 
in its office and nature, with a zero, as it never has weight and sig- 
nificance of its own, but derives it solely from the parts it is com- 
bined with. From these elements of color, assisted by the forces 
of nature, especially caloric, electricity, magnetism, and light itself, 
all the varieties of colors are combined, ever beheld by the eye 
of man. 

e.) Colors have, at all times, been considered by the mind of 
mankind, as corresponding to certain moral qualities. Hence, the 
innocent and ignorant mind of childhood, is likened to a white, un- 
written sheet of paper, white being considered as the emblem of 
spotless innocence. An atrocious action, is defined as the blackest 
crime, or a deed of the darkest dye. There can be no doubt that a 
time is approaching, when the analogies existing in color, and other 
branches of nature, will enable us to arrive at the same scientific 
certainty in morals, ethics, psychology, and pneumatology, which 
we have already in geometry and numbers. 

ft) Fullness, vacuity, — opacity, translucency, — are conceptions de- 
rived from impressions of sight, neither belonging to color nor form, 
but to woof or texture, — and their presence or absence, in their rela- 
tion to light, arises as follows : As space, illumed by light,- presents 
to sight some of its parts, 1.) as occupied perceptibly by things, or 
bodies, and, 2,) others as not ; and some of these things, 3.) as 
permitting vision, and others, 4.) as intercepting it : it terms the 
two first of these impressions, fullness and vacuity, and the two 
latter, opacity and translucency. 

7. Sight further perceives the realization of ideas, and existence 
of natural laws, indicated in the visible combination of things, 
forms, and their operations. 

a.) Regularity, order, — symmetry, beauty. Sight discovers in 
nature and life, in their things, forces, and beings, animate and 
inanimate, in their forms and motions, — a difference of arrangement 
and alternation of parts, — whereby it is impressed pleasantly or un- 
pleasantly ; which impression it terms, 1,) regularity and order, 2.) 
symmetry and beauty. The subsistence of arrangement in the 
formation, features, or motions of any thing, disclosing a degree of 
order,— vision perceives and terms regularity. If all the several 



ANALYSIS OF THE PHENOMENA OF SIGHT. 101 

parts disclose their position in the arrangement, as harmonizing 
with the whole, and every one of the parts, — the regularity has 
matured into order. Order, exemplified in the construction of 
buildings, the motions of machinery and other works of man, — or 
the movements of living beings, — is perceived by sight as symmetry. 
If to symmetry is added the embellishment of grace and expression, 
it becomes, upon sight, the fascinating impression, termed beauty. 

1>.) The beauty of the human countenance or whole form, — the 
angelic innocence painted on the child's face, — the captivating charms 
displayed by eyes, forehead, cheeks, mouth, lips, and teeth, singly 
or as a "tout-ensemble" of a virtuous, healthy, lovely, and beautiful 
maiden or youth, woman or man, — form impressions upon human 
vision, received nowhere else, and are not merely combinations 
framed from elementary parts. For, be it remembered, the im- 
pression produced by the whole of a picture as a unity, is as fully 
an elementary one of its kind, as the impression from every single 
one of the parts ; inasmuch as parts, when minutely examined, are 
themselves wholes again composed of parts, to the extent percepti- 
ble to the limits of sight. 

c« Generation, Causality. "When sight, perceiving the perform- 
ance of the act of copulation, between the two sexes, that consti- 
tute the dualistic creative unity throughout animated nature, notes, 
after the lapse of a specific period of time, the act of parturition, 
whereby the fecundated feminine gives existence to a new being, 
of the same species to which the progenitors belong: — Sight fur- 
nishes, in these two facts, the two leading elements, constituting as 
cause and effect, the law of generation and causality ; the first being 
the latter, ruling in the procreation of animated nature ; and the 
latter being the first, in its absolute character of riding all things. 

d. Grandeur, Loftiness, Sublimity, Aw fulness, Majesty. — When 
sight, from a favorable point of vision, looks upon detached parts and 
operations of nature, such as a beautiful landscape, a high mountain, 
the vast ocean in uproar, a mighty waterfall, an all-sweeping ava- 
lanche, a resistless torrent or conflagration, the rising and setting of 
sun and moon, under enhancing circumstances, and casts, in a fine 
serene night, its wondering glance up into the starry heavens ; see- 
ing its glittering gems forming golden galaxies of suns and worlds, 
beyond number and count, or perceiving upon the countenance 



102 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

of some noble man or woman, a reflection of the great strength or 
worthiness and value of the character residing within ; sight noticing 
this different configuration of things, all calculated to make more 
than an ordinary impression upon it and man, has named them, as 
the case may happen to he, grand, lofty, sublime, awful, majestic. 
e. Teleology, Design, Purpose, End. — In whatever direction sight 
sends its glance, whether into the boundless area of the universe, 
the vast fields of nature, or the smallest and most minute parts of 
its great and wonderful domain, it perceives, near and far, around 
and within, everywhere, in the forms, modes, and actions of things, 
one grand necessitating connection, running from the lowest end of 
the scale up to the highest, whereby all things are means to ends 
for others ; and, in turn again, the whole has to serve as the main 
mean, to the end of every separate part. Sight does not discover 
this teleology itself, but it perceives the universal fitness and forma- 
tion, in the shape and necessitating action of all things, which, 
undisguisedly, all point to, and work for, such a unitary grand pur- 
pose, everywhere. For sight, clearly sees, that lifeless bulk serves 
as a firm foundation and food to the unsentient life of vegetation ; 
that it sustains in turn the vitality of the animated realm ; that 
the forces of nature administer to the support of both, and that all 
of them combined are needed and used by man, and subordinated 
to his benefit. Further, sight undisguisedly perceives in the con- 
struction and form of vitalized bodies, in the parts and limbs com- 
posing them, the fitness of one part to another, and its whole, the 
adaptation of each part to a specific function, yet serving many other 
uses ; the dualism perceived and displayed in the organized mutual 
conformation of the sexes ; the separate qualities attached to each, 
acting by resistless attraction to secure the enduring continuance of 
the species ; and, finally, perceiving in man the climax, and more 
than it, of all things valuable and useful found below him, con- 
joined and condensed into one smallest and possible whole ; sight 
can not help but perceiving, in nature, a display of power without 
metes and bounds, under the control of luisest and beneficent laws ; 
and, in man, a production of wisest skill and ineffable art, impreg- 
nating its work with specific ends, which unitedly all point to one 
highest, as the design and purpose aimed at conjointly by all that 
sight can any-and-everywhere see, discover, and perceive. 



ANALYSIS OF THE PHENOMENA OP HEAKING. 103 



CHAPTER XII. 

ANALYSIS OF THE IMPRESSIONS FROM PHENOMENA UPON THE 
SENSE OF HEARING. 

1. a.) The sense of hearing is located within the organ called 
the ear. The objects of its impressions are the sounds produced by 
the action of the various forces in nature when in motion. Sound 
being air in motion, inclosed within a specific form, the atmosphere 
surrounding man, as an elastic fluid, is the main and ordinary me- 
dium to convey sound to the ear ; yet other bodies, liquid as well 
as solid, are known as capable of conducting sound, analogous to 
the wire-conducting electricity, b.) The ear is shaped in the form 
and upon the principle of a funnel, whereby it is enabled to con- 
centrate the mass of sound striking its outer surface into its smallest 
shape, and thus lead it to the seat of hearing within the interior of 
the ear. c.) This seat of hearing resides in the tympanum, being 
an expansion of the nerve of hearing into a thin, skinny, highly- 
sensitive membrane, stretched out within the ear like the slcin upon 
a drum. The striking of sound, in its various forms, upon this 
skin, constitutes the phenomenon, the perception of which we term 
hearing. 

2. a.) As the forces in nature capable of producing sounds are 
countless in number, endlessly diversified in capacity and form, the 
sounds produced from such diversity of causes, must necessarily 
present an equally multiform diversity in phenomenal effects ; and, 
hence, of impressions upon the hearing organ. This multiplicity 
of phenomena are all embraced under the one class-name of sound ; 
but varieties thereof are often denoted by the name of tone, tune, 
ring, crack, noise, roar, howl, bustle, rustling, clap, crash, clangor, 
etc., etc.; from all of which the infinitely divers impressions nev- 
ertheless reduce themselves into four main classes, as follows : b.) 
Sounds differ as to — I, Mass and Magnitude ; II, Shape and 
Form ; III, Essence and Quality ; and, IV, Force and Intensity. 

3. a.) "Respecting mass and magnitude, sounds differ spacially in 
circumference and in volume of bulk ; and, timely, by length or 



104 THE TEMPLE OP TRUTH. 

brevity in duration, consisting in a more or less of moved mass of 
air, presenting in action a lesser or greater number of vibrations, for 
a shorter or longer time, b.) In shape and form sounds are regular 
or irregular, always corresponding to the mould, by which they were 
formed, be that the mouth of a human being, a cannon, wild beast, 
the roaring ocean, the howling tempest, or a musical instrument ; 
hence, assuming and presenting all imaginable shapes and forms 
whatever, c.) In essence and quality sounds differ, like the causes 
or forces of their origin. As some of these are innocent and harm- 
less, others aggressive and destructive, and others conservative and 
protective in their inherent nature : they infuse and impress as 
effecting causes, a floating image of their own essence and quality, 
into that of the sound they create, premonitory, as it were, of their 
intent and design, whereby the listening ear is, in general, easily 
enabled to determine whether their origin belongs to the force-class 
of the indifferent, the hostile, or the friendly to it. d.) In force and 
intensity sounds differ, thereby announcing, not only the more or 
less rapid velocity whereby they permeate space, within a given 
amount of time, but also indicate how much of impulse and ur- 
gency is deposited within them, by the force producing them. By 
virtue of this their force of intensity, they occupy a lower or higher 
key in the scale, natural to the class to which they respectively 
belong. 

[Note.— It remains barely to be noted here, "en passant,'''' that the 
history as well as the detailing of the mode and manner by and in which 
music, as an art, gradually discovered, singled, and picked out, from the 
ocean of their infinity, a number of specific sounds, of divers sorts, forming 
them into those genus-classes of tones, such as it terms the enharmonic, 
chromatic, and diatonic scales, in the theory of the science, do not belong to 
the scope and sphere of our present investigation, and must hence ,be left 
to its proper own.] 

4. The various attributes of sounds, derived from their belong- 
ing cotemporaneously to several or all of the above main classes, 
distribute their whole possible number into the following element- 
ary categories, — whereby, in size, form, quality, and nature, they 
are either : 1.) loud or hissing (whispering); 2.) full or vacant 
(vowels or consonants); 3.) high or low (appertaining to different 
keys and scales or octaves); 4.) strong or weak, (denoting presence 
or absence of ability or volition, that is, intensity, in the producing 



ANALYSIS OP THE PHENOMENA OF HEARING. 103 

force); 5.) clear or dull (denoting presence or absence of precision 
or capacity in form or force in action); 6.) hard or soft (indicating 
rigidity or plasticity in the producing cause); 7.) long or short (de- 
noting persistence or brevity in the producing action); 8.) harsh or 
mild (indicating the presence of discord or concord within the acting 
force); 9.) piercing or tender (indicating the affinity for opposite 
states of the affections); 10.) shrill or soothing (correlated with No. 9). 

5. The capacity existing in the organized apparatus of the human 
mouth and voice for variegating its configurations as forms to model 
sounds, — surpasses, in its possible combinations, all and every cal- 
culation. Nevertheless, all the sounds ever possible to be thereby 
formed, no matter how countless, have their common elementary 
source or origin in the limited number of primary sounds, attached to 
the five vowels, — a, e, i, o, and o, and a few diphthongs of the alphabet. 

Q.-a.) The action of the ear or hearing, is primarily analytic, 
meaning, that it perceives sounds that are single, and not collective, 
one after another, that is, in succession, or time. It, however, also 
acts by implication, synthetically, in receiving and giving the simul- 
taneous impression of forces as coexisting cotemporaneously with, 
or alongside of, one another, that is, in space, — when it perceives 
multiform sounds in the same moment, coming, as it were, from 
the plural forces of some operating orchestra. Hence, its impres- 
sion of number is as definite, as that by the eye, — differing in this, 
that the eye shows the image of the actor, while sound only shows 
to hearing the atmospheric image of the actor's action, occurring at 
that moment. 

6. b.) But, although hearing can embrace, synthetically, a number 
of combimed sounds, impressing it at the moment as one conjoint 
whole : its synthetical privilege in the operation extends no further 
than this : that it can receive and entertain such conjoint impres- 
sion as matter of mere sound only, be that sound music, song, or 
noise, made by many ; but as the same being ever and always dis- 
connected with distinct perceptions, it cannot use it for the trans- 
missory interchange of clear thought by the intellect. For, when 
sound, as in oral speech, is to convey thought from intellect to 
intellect, it can only be done analytically, word after word, the 
speaker as well as the listener, concentrating his attention upon 
every word, as it is littered. A man may listen, when twelve 



106 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

speakers around him hold forth, all perhaps explaining one iden- 
tical subject ; but, unless he concentrates his whole attention upon 
listening to the whole speech of a single one, — he may, at the end, not 
understand much of the matter ; because mind and ear can enter- 
tain one mental subject only at one and the same moment of time. 

7. The office of sound is to effect and subserve for man, three 
main objects or purposes, — each one being most intimately blended 
with the other. These are : 1.) self-preserving protection ; 2.) cul- 
ture and progress ; and, 3.) happiness and enjoyment. 

8. Self -preserving protection. The forces of nature, before brought 
under his control, are formidable to man, and even not fully de- 
void of all mischief when totally subdued, they solicit his unceas- 
ing vigilance ever after. Hence, supreme creating power, being 
necessitated, for the purpose of giving man its darling, superior 
rule in nature, had to surround him with forces, whose inner 
nature is, and always remains, more or less wild, savage, and at 
times ferocious. But creative power, at the same time so arranged 
the mechanism of all things, that none of man's foes can move, 
without giving some alarm to man's sentinel in the ear, announcing 
what and who is coming, and how far or near they may be at the time. 
Hence the wild beast and the thunder, at a distance, roar ; the 
hurricane and tempest liowl ; the avalanche, sliding mountain, and 
tumbling building crash ; and every thing in its way, large or small, 
announces its motion to the human ear, so that it may provide the 
means of defense and protection, 

9. Culture and progress. Man had the language of oral speech 
in use, long before he ever dreamt of that of signs for the eye, by 
figures, hieroglyphics or writing. And even since he has succeeded 
in extending, by medium of his written language, the domain of 
his knowledge, — passing, in some directions, all the former limits 
of hope and landmarks of expectation : he still uses, and ever will 
use, for spreading and applying the knowledge he thus accumu- 
lates, — in his house, the market and world, — chiefly by the speech 
of sound. That speech rules in his barn-yard and bed-chamber, in 
his kitchen and parlor, in his shop and counting-house, in school 
and church, in court and capitol. Thereby the great ideas collected, 
in the silent glare of the midnight lamp, in the student's lonely 
chamber, by the brooding mind from its own unfathomed depths, 



ANALYSIS OF THE PHENOMENA OF HEARING. 107 

or the neglected book of some great thinker, are measurably rescued 
from oblivion, and obtain more or less currency in the public mind. 
The number and amount of true thoughts and ideas thus penetrating 
into the peoples' mind, — understood by all, or the most, sufficiently 
clear, to serve as principles and cynosures for practical application 
and use, — constitute the amount and average measure of a nation's 
culture; contain the real weapons, for defense and protection 
against, and rule of, the forces of nature ; and evince and indicate 
the actual degree of the people's fitness for the enjoyment of that 
happiness, subsisting alone within the sensibility-sphere of their 
soul ; and consisting in the active presence of universal good-will 
to all, tender friendship to some men, and highest, most passionate 
love toward the one ineffable being, encyclmg all power, beauty, 
truth, wisdom, and beatitude, in his boundless ocean of absolute 
goodness ; for which the heart forevermore yearns, until found, — 
and excluding all its opposites from its precincts. 

10. a.) Happiness and enjoyment. Among all man's senses, the 
eye, pre-eminently, is that of the intellect. So is the written, or 
language of the eye, principally, yet not exclusively, the organ of 
the thinking power. On the other hand, the ear may be termed 
the proper sense, — and vocal speech the main, yet likewise not ex- 
clusive, vehicle of the soul, and pre-eminently for conveying senti- 
ment, thought, and emotion, to the upper pole, which we have 
termed its sphere of sensibility, — and in which every man's happi- 
ness or misery has its actual location. The heaven which man 
ever longs after, exists in this very spot, in every man ; but rarely 
unharmed as it was when yet an innocent child, — but in a dam- 
aged, and too often, in an entirely changed and subverted condition. 
The majority of man's best enjoyments and joys upon earth, he 
derives from man ; for, if they are of the real kind, they blend 
with those experienced in converse with the source of being. 
Ninety-nine hundredths of all the great evils and pains on earth, 
man, and man alone, prepares and concocts for man. Nature has 
no stings, no poisons, no tearing teeth, that can, nay its very death, 
can not, even from afar, compare to the crushing, boundless woe 
of the broken heart, the dismal gloom of black despair, the pangs 
of broken friendship, the searing flames of faithlessly betrayed love, 
the ceaseless rankling of burning envy, malice, and hate, and the 



108 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

torturing rack, and hellfire of the conscience, — willfully loaded 
with guilt and crime, b.) As man is, so he acts, so he speaks. 
Man or woman, if kind, affectionate, tender, generous, magnani- 
mous, brave, — the sound of their speech will be poetry and music 
to every ear around them. For, the voice streams out the essence 
of its soul into other souls, through the ear as its peculiar channel, 
which acts, wherever deposited, in accordance with its nature, 
either like the honey of heaven, or the venom of death. Man, if 
he only knew it, is so rich in affections, that he could afford to 
squander caresses, endearments, friendship, and love, all around 
him, in such lavish, prodigal extravagance, as to change every 
spot into a paradise, wherever his feet happen to stand,— and at 
the end, instead of diminution, his wealth of love would be more 
Crcesus-like than ever before. From sheerest ignorance of his own 
nature, he willfully prefers to remain a starving beggar and nig- 
gardly miser at the table of which he is the proper owner, but 
afraid to satiate his gnawing appetite by the wholesomest delicacies 
spread thereon, in boundless profusion, c.) Sound, by oral speech, 
is the quickest conductor of thought and sentiment from mind to 
mind, and soul to soul. It is the telegraph between the off-parti- 
tioned supernatural forces residing in man and his fellows. By 
friendly dialectics, — argument, debate, conversation, recitation of 
beautiful poetry, enhanced by the magic charms of true, heartfelt 
social intercourse, it contains an educational discipline of the human 
forces, developing them into true, general, and harmonious culture, 
whose full power has never been fully known, because never but 
merely partially tried and applied. When once fully developed, 
it will work miracles in man and his surroundings, that will astound 
a world with a whirlwind of bewildering joy, — in showing that the 
heaven, only dreamt of as far off, beyond present reach, existing in 
distant spheres, and skies, — is within the grasp of its hand, and in its 
fullest possession, as soon as it earnestly wills it. Beside the charms 
inherent in eloquent speech, euphoneous rhythmic poetry, majestic 
breast-heaving oration, all derived from soul-moving sound: the 
power of burning thought becomes actually electrifyingly inspiring 
in its celestial marriage with song. And its alternation with the 
ocean of unknown power, residing in the inarticulate speech of the 
instrumental Iwrmanies of sound, — all as yet but partially known 



ANALYSIS OF THE PHENOMENA OF HEARING. 109 

only, under the appellation of music, will, in due time, arise as a 
hell-subduing, heaven-engendering force. 

11. As song is the speech of joy and happiness in youth, and as 
the sounds of words, expressing angry or loving passion, may tear 
the heart of those with grief, or lift it up to extasy, to whose ear 
they are addressed ; it is clear, that here is the front door to human 
happiness or misery, heaven or hell, so far as prepared by man for 
man. Hence, all the opposite emotions, alternately ruling man's 
heart, of sadness and delight, fear and hope, despair and ex- 
pectancy, grief and hilarity, dejection and serenity, terror and joy, 
etc., may, in quick succession, be called forth in his bosom, by the 
changing sound from nature's forces, or the soothing or terrifying 
intonations resounding from man's impassioned voice. 

12. Although hearing gives no such perception of space like 
sight, yet it knows that sound is a something existing, with its 
cause, outside of its ear, consequently, alongside of other things, 
which is, and means, in space. As its action is perpetually from 
analysis to synthesis, noting all its phenomena, simple or compound, 
in single-file succession, one by one, each after the other, as they 
dive up in the moving endless chain of duration's ever-flowing 
moments ; it is emphatically the sense of time, or floating and 
fleeting duration, that is, eternity, in motion. Hence, from the 
preceding, it is clear, that the volume and form of the phenom- 
ena, the intervals between their action, the diversity of direction 
in their approach, give hearing, in its sum total, as clear and dis- 
tinct, although a differently modified, perception of the primary 
conditions and forms, underlying all existence, as they are furnished 
by sight, including extension, length, breadth, hight, and depth, full- 
ness, vacuity, size, locality, shape, form, rest, motion, force, gravity, 
vitality, organism, composition, construction, Quality, regularity, order, 
symmetry, and beauty, perceiving the latter in its highest perfection, 
in a series of multiform motion and action, whose whole and parts 
move in consummate union, which it terms Harmony. 



110 THE TEMPLE OF TETTTH. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ANALYSIS OF THE IMPRESSIONS FROM PHENOMENA UPON THE 
SENSE OF TOUCH. 

1. The sense of touch, tact, or form, so far as the nature of its 
perceptions, in general, is concerned, is diffused all over man's skin, 
for wherever any thing comes in contact with his skin, at any part 
of the body, he experiences, more or less distinct, one or the other, 
or several of the impressions, detailed below, in §6 and 7. But 
this sense is concentrated, as it were, into a specific organ, perform- 
ing functions in reach of no other sense, and absolutely needed by 
all the senses, to consummate and bind their separate action into a 
perfect whole. The object of touch is the form, texture, woof, 
consistence, and quality of things, as expressed upon their surface. 
Touch is, hence, the meeting of two bodies, man's with some other, 
and the sundry phenomena resulting from that event, constitute 
the impressions we are here to count up. These impressions, in 
general, are made upon every part of the skin, since the great nervous 
tree is found to be present in some one of its innumerable twiglets 
upon the whole surface. 

2. The main seat of touch has, however, its headquarters in the 
tips of the fingers of the human hand, and a second dwelling and 
machinery, less perfect than the first, in the toes of the feet. It 
there resides in a number of small, round, tender, little warts, in- 
visible to the naked eye, ramified out, as diminutive branchlets of 
itself, by the principal nerve of touch. Whenever objects are 
touched by the fingers, these little warts erect themselves, in an 
active attitude, and thereby enable touch to perform its functions, 
by a scrutinizing examination, in a reliable manner. 

3. The medium whereby touch operates, is the caloric or temper- 
ature of warmth pervading and surrounding its organ at the time of 
action. For, when the skin is chilled and stiff from cold, and 
hand and fingers are benumbed with icy-freezing, the sense of 
touch performs either no action at all, or none that results in relia- 
ble impressions. Touch differs from the senses of sight and hear- 



ANALYSIS OF THE PHENOMENA OF TOUCH. Ill 

ing, in one highly important particular. What the eye sees and 
the ear hears, are all forces or their acts, out of man, more or less 
distant, which may, or may not, come into his actual immediate 
presence. But no sooner does man touch a thing, than he is 
" face to face " with that, which may be his greatest friend or most 
deadly foe ; and, the very next instant, may feel himself encircled 
by the arms of a loving heart, or in the grasp of a crushing mon- 
ster, opening the very jaws of death. 

4. Touch forms, as it were, a bodily eye, for the sense of feeling, 
in order to inform feeling, at some distance, of the external form 
which things have for it. On the other hand, touch forms for 
sight and the intellect a second or microscopic eye, reporting such 
phenomena of things, whereby thought is brought with their 
properties and nature, "face to face." Touch, thus springing from, 
and acting conjointly in the name of, and for intellect and soul, 
mind and body, vitality and organism, the infinite and finite in 
man, at one and the same time, has, at all times, instinctively been 
regarded by the common consciousness of mankind, as the most 
reliable of the exterior senses, and as not liable to be imposed upon 
by chronic or normal idiosyncrasies, occasionally attaching to indi- 
vidual sight or hearing, or produced by some fanciful lusus natures, 
affecting the same like actual realities. Hence the disinclination 
of Thomas, the apostle, to rely upon the statement of his friends ; 
based, as he supposed, upon their senses of sight and hearing alone, 
and his reluctance to credit the fact as such, surely desired by him- 
self as much to be true as any of his colleagues ; yet, not willing 
to accept it as such, until corroborated by touch, as that sense 
whose report even skepticism personified has not the hardihood, in 
good earnest, to draw in question, or doubt its testimony, 

5. Touch is subject to the same main laws of perception that 
govern sight and hearing. Like the former, it perceives its objects 
to exist in space, alongside of one another ; and, like both, it can 
act upon them only analytically, that is, examine them and their 
properties only one after another, or in time. Hence the classifi- 
cations or categories, as resulting from sight and hearing, underly, 
as laws of apperception, the action of touch, as they do the former. 
Hence it knows space and time, expansion, and duration, whole and 
parts, with their dividing meters ; knows plenitude and emptiness, 



112 THE TEMPLE OF TEUTH. 

size and locality, shape and form, rest and motion, force and gravity, 
vitality and organism, composition and construction, inlierence and 
quality, regularity and order, symmetry and beauty, and lias even, at 
times, some faint surmise of diversity from color. 

6. All these various conceptions touch derives from a small num- 
ber of primary impressions, forming the elements resulting from its 
contact with nature and its things and forces. These are called : 
1.) Compact and loose ; 2.) stationary and moving ; 3.) solid and 
fluid ; 4.) hard and soft; 5.) rigid and elastic; 6.) stiff and flexible; 
7.) brittle and tough; 8.) rcw<?/i and smooth, also tender ; 9.) evm 
and uneven; 10.) adhesive and slippery; 11.) #wc& and £/m?; 12.) 
yme and coarse, and not only the elements of all form, as noted in 
Chapter X, § 3, c, consisting of the single point and its versatile- 
combinations, but, likewise, the forms again resulting by combining 
these with the above-named elementary phenomena, whereby touch 
obtains the impressions of : sharp and dull, round and cornery, 
straight and crooked, with similar items, all appertaining to form and 
its qualities resulting therefrom. 

7. a.) As feeling is the central sense of organism, and the organs 
of each sense are, as such, parts thereof, there are several of the 
impressions inherently belonging to feeling, experienced also in all 
the senses, and some of them in one or more. Thus pain or its 
absence is experienced in all the senses when in a morbid or healthy 
state. Thus, likewise, the impressions of heat and cold, dry and 
ivet, strong and weak, light and heavy, are experienced by touch and 
feeling in common. &.) And so is the sense of touch, as diffused in 
the skin and whole surface of the body, more or less impressed by 
all the phenomena we have counted up, in the preceding paragraph, 
when touched by objects upon any of its parts ; but these im- 
pressions can nowhere be defined and determined with the clear- 
ness and precision, given to them, when resulting from contact with 
the main seat of the organ in the points of the fingers. 

8. a.) The impression of compact and loose, resulting, the first 
from the combination of fullness and solidity, and the latter of 
fullness and vacuity, become the parent of most of the other im- 
pressions, as they are only properties or qualities of the conception 
body, which is, in this primary impression, reported as existing, or 
present to touch, b.) The next quality in the compact or loose, 



ANALYSIS OF THE PHENOMENA OF TOUCH. 113 

ascertained by touch, is stationary and moving. Stationary, touch 
calls the object passively submitting to examination ; moving, that 
which, self-acting, obstructs or prevents the same. From these two 
qualities, touch derives the impressions of motion and rest, force 
and gravit}', cause and effect, c.) Solid, is for touch, that whose 
particles adhering, resist it, and do not part by forcible contact 
with its organ ; fluid or liquid, it terms, what unresistingly admits 
the organ's immersion into its body, so as to occupy, at option, 
any spot of its locality ; d.) hard, touch terms the solid upon the 
surface of which it can effect no perceptible sign of, and by, its 
organ's pressure ; soft, it terms what admits that same ; e.) rigid, 
touch calls the hard which, does not bend; elastic, that, which 
yielding to force, resumes its attitude when force ceases to act ; /.) 
stiff, is the solid that bends to more, flexible, that which bends to 
less, force ; g.) brittle, is the rigid, which, attempting to bend it, is 
breaking ; tough or tenacious, the hard, refusing to break or part to 
repeated tendings ; h.) rough, is a surface irregularly uneven ; 
smooth, one of equal particles so closely conjoined as if polished ; 
i.) even, is the plane, all whose lines of surface run horizontal ; 
uneven, that deviating from it ; 7c.) adhesive, is named, by touch, 
the sticky quality of the soft tenaciously clinging to other bodies ; 
slippery, the opposite, refusing so to adhere ; I.) thick or thin, is an 
impression received by touch from solids as well as fluids, denoting 
the form of volume in the first, and the various degrees of 
liquidity in the consistency of the latter ; m.) sharp and dull, and 
similar impressions of hard, when conjoined with form, denoting 
presence or absence of pointed and keen edge, announces to feeling 
the necessity of care and caution, in its intercourse with things 
around it, proclaiming, from outside of its door, that they can 
cause pain by stings, cuts, and bruises. 

9. a.) By dint of much practice the sense of touch may become 
so expert and refined, as to become enabled to discover and detect 
qualities in things, which the sight of the keenest eye is, often, 
unable immediately to perceive. Tellers in banks are known, 
while so rapidly counting as your eye can follow, to fling out, as 
soon as touching with their fingers, a piece of counterfeit coin, 
without so much as ever looking at it. b.) Blind mendicants know 
.he value of an alms, and what metal it is, as soon as it touches 



114: THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

their hand, although it may, to sight, resemhle half a dozen other 
coins in size, shape, and make so closely, that the seeing man does 
not know their difference in the dark, c.) It is even reported, 
on good authority, that a man born blind was enabled to detect 
the existence of difference to his touch, in surfaces of different 
colors. To these differences he could, of course, attach no im- 
pressions similar to those derived from sight. But he described 
the mode and kind of these impressions upon his touch, by analogy 
to sound impressing his hearing. Thus, he stated, that the im- 
pression upon him from the color of scarlet, had a resemblance to 
that from the glaring sounds of the trumpet. 

10. Regularity, order, symmetry, and beauty, are no strangers to 
the sense of touch. It is known that new visitors, who came to 
pay their respects to Pfeffel, the blind, highly-gifted German poet, 
had to accord to him the privilege of examining their countenances, 
by touching its parts with his fingers, like phrenologists examine 
peoples' skulls ; whereby he gathered his notion of its expression, 
by parts as well as whole. Among the guests thus visiting was 
also, at one time, Gibbon, the celebrated English historian ; and at 
another, the woman, no less celebrated as an author, Madame De 
Stael, — both of which renowned personages are known to have been 
possessed of rather homely faces. Pfeffel, who knew their works 
and literary fame long before their visit, is reported as becoming 
unusually surprised by discovering through his examination, the 
great discrepancy between the actual form of their physiognomy, 
and the rather beautiful one he had expected to find them pos- 
sessed of. 



ANALYSIS OF TIIE PHENOMENA OF SMELL. 115 



CHAPTER XIV. 

ANALYSIS OF THE IMPRESSIONS MADE BY PHENOMENA UPON THE 
SENSE OF SMELL. 

The sense of smell is located in the olfactory nerve, descending 
from the brain, and expanding itself in the form of a tenderly sensi- 
tive skin, within the cavities of the nose, called the nostrils. As in 
hearing, the medium of this sense is the surrounding atmosphere. 

2. As the earth is surrounded by the atmosphere, so every 
body and thing upon it, has a special atmosphere around it, of its 
own, formed by the exhalation and exudation of the action of its 
component and chemical parts. The effluvia from this smaller 
atmosphere of things, absorbed by, and mixing with, the air we 
inhale in breathing, form the objects of smell, — and the perception 
of their impressing phenomena upon the olfactory nerves, consti- 
tutes the act of smelling. 

3. Of all the senses, smelling is that which, thus far, has given 
us, as yet, the smallest number of accurately defined impressions ; 
although its field embraces an indefinite number. For the whole 
of that number, we have merely two general classes ; and even for 
these, we have only names, expressing that the one class attracts, and 
the other repels us, — which we term odoriferous or fragrant, and 
stinking or fetid. The names, aroma, perfume, and stench denote, the 
two first only causes of pleasant sensations upon smell, — and the 
latter, a cause as well as an extreme state of opposite impres- 
sions. The terms, sweet-scented, odorous, odorate, and pungent, are 
not more definite, as denoting a fixedly-figured phenomena, than 
the preceding. 

4. The action of this sense, consists in a pleasant or disagreeable 
tickling of the smelling nerves, caused by the fine vapors and fumes 
of things, mixed with the inhaling air ; thus showing the composi- 
tion, not only of the circumfloating atmosphere itself, but indicating, 
more or less clearly, the cause of its attractive or repulsive character. 
Smell is known to affect nervous persons, to the degree of fainting 
and swoon. There are, also, facts known, showing the subsistence 

10 



116 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

of some, as yet unexplained, connection between certain phenomena 
of this sense, and the faculty of memory and reminiscence. 

5. The main point and fact which we have to record of this 
sense, is, that nature has made and posted it as a special sentinel, 
permanently appointed to watch over and protect man's health and 
life, — forcing him to avoid, reject, and flee from, that which, either 
as foul and poisoned air, and destructive gases entering his lungs, 
becomes pernicious for his blood and vital forces, or capable of de- 
priving him of life, often instantly, or as food approaching the 
mouth in a state of putrescent decomposition, or as unfitted by 
nature to constitute nutrimental substance : When, at' once, smell 
discovering their noxious nature, warns man of the danger impend- 
ing, and forcibly impels him, by nausea and loathing, aversion and 
disgust, to separate, as quickly as may be, all connection and con- 
tact with the repulsive and pains- threatening atmosphere or object. 



CHAPTER XV. 



ANALYSIS OF THE IMPRESSIONS FROM PHENOMENA UPON THE 
SENSE OF TASTE. 

1. The sense of taste, residing in the mouth, has its seat upon 
the upper part and the two side-edges of the tongue. Like in 
touch, its organ consists in a number of small, excitable, nervous 
warts, by the acting of which, the tasting nerve performs its func- 
tions. The object of its action, is the impression derived from 
close and intimate contact with the elmentary chemical particles, in- 
herent in the composition of things introduced into the mouth. 

2. The medium of its action, is the saliva, contained in the 
glandules of the tongue and mouth, which, called forth by the 
process of mastication, mixing with and dissolving the salts con- 
tained in the masticated solids, or present in a dissolved state 
within the imbibing liquids, inducted into the mouth, pierce into 
the nervous little warts, causing therein the sensation we term 
tasting. 



ANALYSIS OF THE PHENOMENA OF TASTE. 117 

3. The object of tasting, is to ascertain and identify, as it were, 
by a preliminary probing process, the properties and qualities in- 
herently residing in the nature and essence of the things, and 
whether premonitorily friendly or opposite, — which, by the act of 
eating and drinking, we are about to introduce into, and incorporate 
with, our inmost physical self. Hence, taste is placed as a second 
and more inexorable sentinel than smell, at the very door of man's 
life, — between his concupiscent appetites, and the external attrac- 
tions of things thereupon, to guard him against the noxious and 
dangerous qualities hiddenly therewith combined. For, if it hap- 
pens that some substance, as yet unknown by taste and quality, 
but inviting man by pleasant odor and aspect, to try using it as 
food ; if its taste proves nauseous or uncommonly acrid and irritat- 
ing to the organ, — the mouth at once, of its own accord, by instinc- 
tive mechanism, will spit and spew it out, as knowing the future 
fact beforehand, that its induction into the stomach, and thence by 
digestion into the blood and inmost system, would have its un- 
avoidable consequences, consisting surely in pain, perhaps in disease 
and prostration, and possibly, even in death and dissolution itself. 

4. The impressions made upon taste, by the manifold articles 
used as food and drink, are countless in number and kind ; yet, 
as in smell, we have only a few classes which possess a definite, 
fixed and positive character, which we call, sweet, sour, hitter, salt. 
There are impressions obtained by taste from various things, ap- 
pearing in a character not quite so well defined. These we name 
pungent, acrid, pricking, sharp, harsh, mild, etc.; and some, as found 
in pepper and other spices, we denote as burning. Heat or cold, in 
drinks and eatables, modify their impression upon taste materially, 
in proportion to the degree thereof present. 

5. Again, like in smell, taste has but few words, to denote, with 
specific accuracy, the difference between the numberless tastings 
impressing themselves, from the various objects, upon its organ. 
The whole variety of taste, which we like and relish, or dislike 
and repel, — we synthesize into one class for each, calling it either 
good or bad ; and what we like or dislike in a higher degree, we 
denote as of a delicious, delicate, rare, dainty, nice flavor, or call its 
taste, nauseous, loathsome, disgusting, abominable. 

6. Smell first disclosed to man the presence of different states 



118 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

inherent in things, not accessible to sight, hearing, or touch. Taste 
next came, disclosing in sweet, sour, bitter, salt, etc., the actual 
presence of divers indwelling qualities therein. Thereby, spurred 
from the vast impulses to avoid pain, cure disease, secure longevity 
and wealth, the inquisitive mind was first led into, and for a 
good while kept wandering in, the labyrinthic mazes of imaginary 
alchemy ; but from it, by good luck and common sense combined, 
gradually discovered and found the genuine track of real chem- 
istry, and in it the key, promising, by-and-by, to reduce its ele- 
ments, until man shall find their actual number, as it lies at the 
bottom of nature and the foundation of all things in creation. 



CHAPTER XYI. 



OBSERVATIONS AND FACTS PREPARING THE ANALYSIS OF THE 
SENSE OF FEELING. 

1. As we found the sense of touch to be diffused, in a general 
shape, all over man's exterior surface upon every spot of the bare 
skin : so now we find the sense of feeling, as ubiquitous or omni- 
present within that skin, throughout the whole system, — yet, in 
some localities more concentrated, and differently modified, than 
in others. 

2. The organs of all the other senses, which we have examined 
hitherto, are all located in certain parts or portions of man's nervous 
system, — even not excepting touch, spread over the outside sur- 
face, as a part merely, of the wondrous whole. The nervous sys- 
tem, in consonance with the rest of nature and man, thus far seen, 
presents a dualistic whole, of which the upper pole, charged with the 
functions combined with thought and spontaneity or voluntary motion, 
consists in a trinity of combined organs, embracing, 1.) the cerebrum 
or large brain ; 2.) the cerebellum or small brain ; and, 3.) the spinal 
marrow, — as an elongation of the same. The nether pole of the 
nervous web. constituting the superintendent and active agent in 
the reproductive and preserving, — hence, vegetative or involuntary 



OBSERVATIONS, ETC., RELATIVE TO FEELING. 119 

operations appertaining to the economy of the organism, has its 
seat and centre in the so called ganglionic system, located in the rear 
of the stomach, near the pit of the heart. 

3. Although each of these two poles, has thus its separate organ- 
ization, and a sphere of action independent of the other, — there yet 
subsists an organized connection between the two, effected by the 
great sympathetic nerve, — combining, with nerves issuing from the 
cerebral, vertebral, and ganglionic systems, into one. 

4. The organ of the sense of feeling, is, therefore, no longer a 
separate nerve or part of the system, — but the whole double appa- 
ratus above described, is its machinery, combined into one unitary 
whole. The force which acts by and through this machinery, is 
vitality, or that living essence, which constitutes the life of man 
itself. Its objects are the perceptions of the various states of its 
own condition, as they announce themselves, more or less dis- 
tinctly, from time to time. These perceptions are obtained where 
ever that force is present, — which, active through, by, and in, the 
nerves, has been denominated the nervous fluid, — but nowhere, 
where it is absent. Hence it is, with good reason, regarded as 
identical with vitality or physical life itself; and thereby, no longer 
needing a foreign or exterior medium of action, is the very force 
acted upon itself, in perceiving, by feelings, how far the various 
parts and particles, admitted and received within its inner sphere, 
are, and have become one and homogeneous with it in action and 
nature, assisting in producing and upholding well-being, or creating 
pain and fomenting discord, show themselves still more or less for- 
eign and antagonistic thereto. 

5. In Chap, ix, \ 7, part ii, we have called the desiring, willing, 
and enjoying force of man, soul, — shown it as a dualism of two 
poles, the upper one of which, we have termed the sphere of 
sensibility, and the lower one that of sensation. Now, the sense 
of feeling, — of which we are at present speaking, is alike the 
medium for the two named spheres, and the phenomena respec- 
tively occurring in each. Hence, its action is twofold ; first, on 
the one hand, presenting, in its lower sphere of sensation, all the 
phenomena strictly appertaining to physical pain or pleasure, — and 
secondly, on the other hand, all the phenomena, which, as psychical 
facts, under the names of passions, affections, emotions, joyous or 



120 THE TEMPLE OF TKUTH. 

grieving, — are experienced as states of the soul, in the (upper or) 
sphere of sensibility. 

6. In Chap, xi, § 6, b. etc., we have shown that the primary 
colors run upon a sliding-scale, whereby, through addition or sub- 
traction of more or less of the positive or the negative ingredient, 
they are made to run one into the other, forward or backward ; as 
likewise that by the various combinations of their elements, — all 
the multiform varieties of their shades are produced. Now, the 
sense of feeling is exactly such a sliding-scale, whereby the impres- 
sions perceived in the two halves composing it, they being com- 
bined in the middle, run constantly one into the other, and call up 
by sympathetic action, that state in the passive part of the spheres, 
which corresponds to the state prevailing in the one that is active. 

7. As the soul is the 'binding ligament between the mind and 
the body, exists hence with and in the mind, as well as with and 
in tbe body, — hence, as it were, midway between the infinite aspira- 
tions of spiritual nature, and the earthly wants of the body, — per- 
petually calling for supply ; its state is necessarily influenced by 
the conviction, that its interest demands earnest attendance to both. 
In order to get a clear insight into the action of each of the two 
spheres, into which our sense of feeling has thus split itself, we 
will have to examine them separately, one after another, thereby 
making two parts of the investigation : 1.) analyzing the painful 
or pleasant phenomena of feeling impressed upon sensation, as ap- 
pertaining primarily to the feelings of the body ; and, 2.) the phe- 
nomena originating within the sensibility-sphere of the soul itself, 
consisting in its joys or sufferings. 



ANALYSIS, ETC., OF BODILY FEELING. 121 



CHAPTER XVII. 

ANALYSIS OF THE PHENOMENA OF FEELING, IMPRESSED UPON 
SENSATION AS ORIGINATING IN THE BODY. 

The pains or pleasures experienced in the body, are derived from 
seven sources, as follows : 

1. From hunger and thirst, — trie cravings of which, when urgent, 
causing the painful sensations denoted by their name, we also de- 
rive those pleasant ones, experienced when, by eating and drink- 
ing, driving away the unpleasant feelings, we likewise satiate a 
good appetite, and with zest do justice to the good delectable 
things of the table. All these sensations of relish and gusto are to 
be clearly discriminated from those specifically experienced by 
the sense of taste, as belonging to its sphere alone, during the 
same process. 

2. From heat and cold. Extreme states of temperature in the 
atmosphere surrounding man, or the natural action of the force 
called fire, — acting upon him, when no longer under his control, 
produce two opposite states of highly unpleasant and painful feel- 
ings upon his body ; the one, by impressing his normal warmth 
with a superior and even destructive degree of heat, which he 
terms sultry, hot, oppressive, burning ; the other, cold, by absorbing- 
man's normal quantity of caloric faster than the action of the sys- 
tem is able to reproduce it, — thereby causing the impressions which 
he calls cold, chilling, freezing. 

3. From other forces and conditions of nature. Wet and dry, 
pleasant and unpleasant weather, affect man's bodily feeling, bracing 
or depressing it. The solid mass will stun or crush him, when 
falling upon him, or he on it ; its sharp and other forms, when 
coming in sudden contact therewith, will wound him by cuts, 
stings, or bruises. The liquid, when falling into it, will drown or 
suffocate him ; which latter, some conditions of the solid, as like- 
wise the fluid air will do, if devoid of life- sustaining ingredients. 

4. From health or disease. Health is the normal condition of 
the body, when its natural functions progress, as it were, in silent 



122 THE TEMPLE OP TRUTH. 

order, — giving to feeling a kind of buoyant, joyous freedom, coupled 
with the consciousness of the presence of a certain quantity of 
inherent force or strength, and devoid of the perception of pain 
within from interior causes. Disease, being the opposite or abnor- 
mal state, is usually a series, as well as an assortment, of many 
kinds of ills, strung together into one fertile source of bodily pain, 
weakness, and prostration ; and hence, ordinarily, calculated to pro- 
duce a corresponding state of dejection within the soul. 

5. From activity and repose. Health, and the order of nature, 
alike require of man a proper exercise of his forces, by alternation 
between motion and rest, waking and sleep. It is by feeling, as 
the sense, through which man obtains the true sensation impressing 
him as strength or weakness ; in proportion as he feels the gravity 
of his own body as a foreign burden, or feeling it little, or not at all, 
is conscious of spare force for moving exterior bodies, in addition 
to his own, — terming their impression, objectively, light and heavy; 
and, subjectively, easy or hard. The rational application of strength, 
when in health, gives feeling no pain, as long as within bounds ; 
but rather a sensation of physical well-being, conjoined with one 
of psychical satisfaction within the soul. But when these bounds 
are transgressed beyond all reason, by excessive exercise, protracted 
toil, or privation of sleep, — nature demurs by impressing the un- 
answerably valid plea of painful fatigue, languid exhaustion, and 
fainting prostration, and compels man to surrender to repose and 
sleep, as the healing remedy. As long as the proper bounds are 
observed by man, between labor and repose, — their change causes 
pleasure ; for the gratification of sleep to the weary, is a real enjoy- 
ment, as long as drowsy, half-conscious slumber, retains a dumb 
knowledge of the delicious restorative. And, after enjoyed rest, 
attractive labor, is a real pleasure to renovated strength. 

6. From sexual connection. Man, by nature's order, split into 
two dualistic sexual halves, receives individual existence only by 
their union into one procreative whole. To secure the duration 
of the race, nature's author has deposited into each sex separate 
forces and qualities, which, differing like parts belonging to one 
whole, attract, and need, one another. When reaching the age of 
puberty, this attraction, by inherent creative impulse of love, 
matures into a mutual want, — to the gratification of which, nature's 



PHENOMENA OF THE SPHERE OF SENSIBILITY. 123 

ruler has attached a unique state of highly excited physical feel- 
ing, partaking of the nature of a gratifying sensation, denoted by 
language, with the term voluptuous. And on the other hand, he has, 
fastened to the premature use, as well as to the abuse at any time, 
of this procreative capacity, not only a prostration of health and 
strength, but also a string of diseases, so variously painful, horrible, 
and loathsome, that their proper knowledge, if duly understood 
beforehand by the victims of lust, might go far in warning them of, 
and protecting them against, a terrible, inevitably impending fate. 
7. Finally, as the perceptions of the senses are translated into 
thoughts, by the action of the understanding, termed conceptions ; 
in like manner, all physical pains and pleasures, are translated by 
sensation into feelings within the soul, felt in its sphere of sensi- 
bility, as joy and sadness, hope or fear, on account of health, life, or 
death. And, vice versa, have all the sensations of the soul likewise 
their proper organs in the body, whereupon they act, making them- 
selves felt as physical impressions. Thus, violent passions, and 
sudden excitations of extreme love, hate, anger, or terror, — not only 
are seen to prostrate the system, produce spasms, hysterics, and 
fainting, — nay, are known to have caused apoplexy, and even death 
itself. Additionally, it may be noted down here, that tickling and 
itching, form two kinds of sensual feelings, strictly belonging to 
bodily feeling. 



CHAPTER XVIII 



THE PHENOMENA ORIGINATING IN THE SENSIBILITY-SPHERE OF THE 
SOUL, CONSTITUTING THE SOURCES OF ITS JOYS AND SUFFERINGS. 

1. The joys or sufferings, as the pleasurable or painful phe- 
nomena experienced within the upper pole of the soul must be 
named, consist in two opposite states of excitation more or less per- 
manent or transient, whereby the ordinary state of its composure 
is pleasantly or painfully interrupted, and forced, for a longer or 
shorter period, to give place to another of a different character. 
The elements of these states, as we have found in those of colors, 
perceived bv sight, are made up of two opposites, running often 
11 



124 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

one id to another, and, by blending, produce various degrees of ad- 
mixture. One of these states, that of joy and enjoyment, the soul 
is forever desiring and yearning after; and the opposite, that of 
sadness and deprivation, it forever makes exertions to avoid and flee. 

2. In Chap, ix, \ 10, let. b, — we define the soul's aspirations as : 
" Loathing fear, trouble, grief, enmity and hate; and yearning after 
security, peace, joy, friendship, and love." It is, hence, clear, that all 
things and forces within the universe, can belong for the soul, to 
one or the other of the two respective classes only, as above denned, 
in proportion as they are instrumental in promoting its main aim, — 
joy and its enjoyment ; and contribute to remove or ward-off all 
opponents, harming, or threatening harm, from the opposite quarter. 

3. By the name of soul, we denote the executive power of man's 
being ; constituting equally the highly irritable force that enjoys, 
sensates, and resolves, which, hitherto, known by the various names 
of : will, volition, heart, temperament, disposition, etc., will be found 
to exhibit and perform all the various functions ascribed to any one 
wud all of these. For, all phenomena in man, which are neither 
thought nor sensual feelings or external perceptions, do hence 
belong neither to the intellect, nor to the physical life of the body, 
such as, passions, affections, emotions, resolutions, etc., whether fixed 
or transient ; but must be ascribed to this third force, wherein mind 
and body, becoming blended into one, are therein equally repre- 
sented and interested, — as forming within it, one unitary, desiring, 
willing, and acting human being. 

4. As hence the soul is, per se, neither a thinking (for its intellect 
thinks for it), nor a perceptive (for the senses perceive for it), nor a 
formative power (for fancy and imagination furnish all its forms), — 
it is the centre of all these ; and embracing, with never-doubting 
faith and ardor, what these three sources report to it, as : beautiful, 
true, and good (no matter whether correctly or not), it fixes there- 
upon the focus of its affections, its reverse, upon their opposites, — 
and thereby makes itself one boundless passion of assorted love, with 
a corresponding shadow of assorted hate ; hating the very necessity 
of being forced to harbor hate at all. 

5. The soul finds itself, at all times, in the presence of six 
objects, acting upon it, — now as positive, and at another time as 
negative forces, — furnishing it all the various material, upon which 



PHENOMENA OF THE SPHERE OF SENSIBILITY. 125 

to exercise its love and the attractions and repulsions thereof, as neg- 
ative or positive action urges. Finding itself existing amidst these 
by necessity, and bound thus to continue existing, aspiring, and act- 
ing with, and among them, — they constitute the causes and sources 
of its joys and griefs, all resulting from its relations to the same. 
These are : a.) The soul knows that it began to be and exist, at a 
specific point in time, — knows, hence, that a superior power had 
being and existence before its birth, and is the cause thereof ; that, 
therefore, that power always was, and ever will be, while the soul 
knows that its career on earth is bounded by limits of time. It is 
taught by its intellect, that this supreme power is absolute, and named 
God, — meaning, a being infinitely powerful, perfect, and good. 
Intellect informs the soul, that this being, alone, as its primary 
source, is worthy of its boundless affection, and alone capable of sup- 
plying its infinite wishes and wants, b.) The soul feels married to 
the mind, — whose needs for knowledge, science and truth, become 
hence its own. c.) It feels married no less to the body, — must, 
therefore, partake of all its feelings of pleasure or pain, of whatever 
sort, from any of the causes precedingly analyzed, and hence share 
its condition as long as life endures. For this body, it must have 
a local liome ; and for its and the whole man's wants, a sphere of 
action furnishing the means of supply, cl.) The soul finds itself 
incased and circumfloated by nature, whose tones teach it the actual 
existence of one grand harmony prevailing throughout its vast 
fields. That harmony the soul yearns to behold established within 
and between itself and all things and their primary source, e.) The 
soul sees itself surrounded by a world full of other souls, all resem- 
bling it in every main feature, and all intent and forced, like itself 
by necessity, to aspire and strive for realizing their inner life, what- 
ever that be, into outside actuality. With all these, and their ex- 
terior arrangements, the soul desires peace and good neighborship, 
if it can have them without surrendering the innate inheritance of 
rights and obligations it knows itself possessed of and charged with, 
from its eternal source. /.) The soul, finally, knows itself to be of 
one or the other sex, of its dualistic species ; and, as male or 
female, longs for its mate, to make its moiety of being one entire 
whole. Hence, it needs a spouse, to be its husband or wife, — into 
whose affectionate bosom to stream over the magic effluvia of its 



126 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

own, and gratify the yearnings of procreative love, within those 
sacred bounds consecrated alike by God, nature, necessity and cJioice. 

6. Born into the world as a child, in a condition utterly igno- 
rant and powerless, — man, starting from this zero-point of knowl- 
edge, grows up amidst life's institutions, generally existing, ready- 
made, before his arrival. Unable to judge and duly survey the true 
degree of their inherent use and value during his earlier years, he 
gradually reaches the period of mature reflection, — and the soul, 
step by step, becoming conscious, of its nature, wants, needs, and 
high destiny, and the means required to reach it, — begins, for the 
first time, from this higher stand-point, with its own eyes, and for 
its own purposes, closely to examine the things and relations around 
itself, in order to ascertain, to a certainty, how far their condition 
answers its purposes, or opposes them. 

7. It soon discovers, that the men living before it, must, in the 
main, have felt the same wants and necessities with itself, and for 
the purpose of supplying the same, went to work establishing 
various institutions, believed by them, in their time, to promote or 
secure the objects in view. Thus, it finds, a.) the school in its 
various grades as a medium to fill the vacant mind by regular 
instruction with fact, and lead the intellect into possession of knowl- 
edge, science, and truth h.) It sees what is termed religion, and the 
church, intended to preserve man in a true relation with his God 
and neighbor, and thereby with himself, and thus secure to him 
a heaven, c.) It sees men, more or less, provided with a home, tem- 
porary or permanent in tenure, their industrial capacity divided into 
a variety of pursuits, trades, and callings, offering a more or less 
favorable opportunity to gift and inclination, in choosing a sphere 
of action whereby to supply the means, more or less reliably, to 
man's various wants and ends, d.) Though not discovering that 
harmonious order in the arrangements of man, which it beholds in 
the action of nature, the soul still perceives order to some degree, 
and of a certain kind to subsist therein, — making it to its hope, still 
a possibility to exist and act therein, in a manner to preserve its 
own life, health, vigor and strength, and thereby remain individually 
in harmony with nature, e.) The soul finds the existence of state 
and government, as an institution originally devised to secure equal 
justice and protection to all the souls under its panoply, — meant to 



PHENOMENA OF THE SPHERE OP SENSIBILITY. 127 

be efficacious alike against aggression from within or witlwut, and 
intended to employ and apply the vast power of the aggregated 
whole for the greatest benefit of all its individual parts. /.) It, 
finally, finds marriage and family as an established institution, de- 
signed to confine the gratification of the sexual procreative prin- 
ciple within the self-chosen bounds of mutual affection, thereby 
securing the health and highest bliss of the enjoyers ; securing a 
regard to unexpressed, pre-emptional rights, of generations unborn, 
to a sound, vigorous constitution, upon the generators giving them 
existence ; securing affectionate parents, and a home to the tender 
new comer, pervaded with an atmosphere of loving solicitude and 
vigilant care, anxious from kindness, and throw the mantle of do- 
mestic felicity over all the denizens, which are parts of this pri- 
mary element and smallest miniature of state as well as heaven, thus 
making love, within this centralized polytechnic school, the first 
practical teacher to all its inmates of primarily-living religion, 
ethics, science, art, trade, exchange of labor, love, and thought, 
state, government, true order and genuine politics. 

8. Man, on entering existence, is, by nature's hand, constructed 
and compounded of seven elementary or cardinal impelling princi- 
ples, being either inherent, as positively existing forces, or being, 
partly the result of working forces present in him, which, as he 
grows up into man or woman, develop and form, in connection 
with the various forces composing the six objects around the soul, 
named in § 5, letters a, b, c, d, e, and f, what is termed the indi- 
vidual's character. From the framing of this character, and its 
harmonious or discordant conformation, will depend the individual's 
real woi-th and value, for himself, his God, and fellow-man. These 
principles or separate elements of character, in each human being, 
by presence or absence of opportunity, by will and inclination, and 
hence by use and habit, are formed into qualities and properties, of 
his entire nature and being, assuming either a normal or morbid 
state, and which state is capable of a shifting from the lowest to 
the highest extreme of intensity, upon its own inherent sliding 
scale. The morbid state is the cause and source of the negative 
and defective action which is called vice, sin, and crime ; and the 
normal state is the source of that positive condition in man, which 
constitutes morality, piety, and virtue. 



128 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

9. From the presence of the former the consciousness of man 
realizes, at every moment within the soul, the amount of disappro- 
bation and condemnation pronounced upon his being and state by 
his conscience, his God, and fellow-beings ; and, from the latter, 
the verdict of commendation awarded to the purity of his motives, 
sentiments, and action, by his central self, his God, and the human 
race. Hereby man, at all times, knows his actual locality upon the 
grand sliding scale of eternity's ethics, and whether his spot is in its 
sunny half, forever ascending " onward and upward " to brighter 
light and lovelier zones, or is on the opposite half of shade and 
frigidity, ending downward in depths so terrible and dismal that, 
exclaiming with the Diver of Schiller : " But tJiere below it's horri- 
ble!" the eye shudders to cast its glance thereon. By this, man, 
at all times, knows whether he is his own true friend or foe, the 
friend or foe of God and the universe, and therein also unerringly 
sees his real worth and value, or unworth or non- value, for either 
thereof. The perception of this greatest and most important of all 
facts for the soul, constitutes the main cause and source of all its 
joys or griefs, its happiness or misery, and is hence a real heaven 
or hell, within the sensibility-sphere of its domain, inasmuch as all 
relations of man, of whatever sort, constitute only parts or rays, all 
running directly toward this grand focal centre. 

10. The seven elementary principles composing man, acting from 
their nature with fatal necessity, are : 1.) Self-love or esteem. — As 
an individualized being, created by Almighty power, man feels 
himself made "in God's image,'" as well as in that of the universe ; 
feels, hence, impressed into him, by God himself, his high value, 
in God's eye, his great dignity and destiny, and the inalienable 
rights innate and attached to his personal identity or selfhood, and 
that the same are primarily as luell-founded as those of every other 
man. Hence, man can truly not form too high an idea or estimate 
of himself, as long as he derives the meter of its valuation from the 
proper, his own, source. 2.) Love of Iwme and means to ends. — 
Existing by necessity, man is forced to protect and prolong that 
existence ; must, hence, wish to exist as a Jiuman being in a home, 
such as is indispensably necessary, and must strive after the means 
to secure life, render it bearable, if not comfortable, and reach its 
high ends and aims. 3.) Love of sex and family. — When, in a 



PHENOMENA OF THE SPHES? OF SENSIBILITY. 129 

normal or healthy state, and arrived at the age of maturity, man, 
as male or female, is impelled by innate inherent impulse to desire 
its mate, to melt self-love with outside love, in the fulfillment of 
the primary law, " to multiply," and thus increase love in and out- 
side of himself, and the number of the loving. 4.) Love of neigh- 
lory or its opposite. — Man belonging to, and existing among, man- 
kind, is impelled to intercourse with men around him, by the 
double motive of necessity and choice, to exchange labor and 
thought with them, as they need his peculiar products and thoughts, 
more or less necessary, like as he needs theirs, as both belong to the 
grand totality of the universe's action, which would be incomplete 
in the absence of either, and hence the soul of the infant has an 
inborn feeling of attachment to the race. This embryonic germ is, by 
such intercourse, gradually developed or distorted into a fixed form 
and shape, whose character is either a predominating general good- 
will or ill-will, well- wish or envy, benevolence or malignity, pre- 
disposing the inclination, and forming a standing impulse and 
motive of action, in concrete cases, as they occur. 5.) Love of 
aliment. — The exterior of man is no perpetual motion, for its flame 
of life requires air, water, and solid food, as fuel to keep it a- 
burning. Pain and pleasure combine to force man thus to secure 
and prolong his existence. The pleasurable feelings attached to 
the gratification of these natural wants, invite man to overstep their 
proper bounds, thereby forming habits, making him a slave to his 
appetites, and seating themselves as fixed passions within the soul, 
and the mechanism of the organism, urging immoderate and mul- 
tiplied gratification. The harmonious control of these, and kindred 
impulses, constitutes that strength of the soul termed self-control, 
virtue, moderation, sobriety, temperance ; its absence or opposite, 
the vice of intemperance, inebriety, gluttony, and gormandizing. 6.) 
Self-love militant. — There exists in man, as in all animated beings, 
a desire and motive to be left unmolested in the exercise and enjoy- 
ment of his forces and rights, accompanied with a capacity to resist 
intrusion and aggression. This principle is needful for self-defense, 
but may, also, become aggressively belligerent. In it is inherent 
what is termed combativeness : which, at bottom, is anger or ire, 
present in a more or less excitable degree of inflammability in all 
men, and roused whenever their rights, or any thing they value, are 



130 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

touched. The indignation felt by all men against wrong and 
outrage, is an indication of the presence of anger in the breast of 
the most peaceable. When extant in the soul, in an unusual 
measure and degree, this element constitutes its proclivity to sud- 
den outbursts of irascibility, rising, at times, to morbid uncon- 
trollableness. 7.) Love of motion or rest — To lie still is death, to 
always move produces it. Man needs, by nature, an alternation of 
both ; hence it was made a necessity that he should labor for his 
bread ; and, forced by fatigue and drowsiness, to seek sleep and 
rest when exhausted. Thus forced to alternation in labor and 
repose, enjoyment and relaxation, action and recreation, nature and 
necessity have assigned certain bounds to both, which he can not 
overstep with impunity. Possessed of a body, that body has 
gravity, hence inclining naturally to rest ; forced however to action, 
its organism, formed of, and always possessing only, a given quan- 
t'ty of forces, refuses to act, when the same is exhausted. Never- 
theless, the sweets of repose, with native sluggishness, or the 
allurements of enticing prospects, may stimulate to extravagance 
in rest or action, and hence engender a passion for, and fixed habits 
of, idleness, laziness, indolence, and sloth, or immoderate action, 
hurry, and over-exertion. 

11. With the living germs of these elementary ingredients of 
character, man enters the world, unconscious of what, slumberingly 
within him, composes his being. His surroundings, from infancy 
to maturity, rouse up and develop these sleeping, into active, forces, 
variously shaded and mixed, forming a certain number thereof, into 
habitudes of desire, volition, and action, preponderating more or 
less, as permanent states in the soul, of which fact, consciousness 
and self-observation furnish the man a more or less accurate 
knowledge. The absence or presence of living religion, or converse 
of the soul with its God, from youth up to the age of puberty, 
determines whether the soul is to rule its passions, or is to be 
ruled by them ; as, likewise, whether the malignant or the benig- 
nant shall incipiently predominate in its developing aspirations. 
The ground thus laid may either be changed, or finally confirmed, 
when the individual, as husband or wife, becoming a parent of a 
family, and an active participating member of community, comes 
now into the closest and most intimate contact with human nature 



PHENOMENA OF THE SPHERE OF SENSIBILITY. 131 

in other beings, and thereby rousing and provoking in a thousand- 
fold manner, all the latently slumbering, or already partially 
developed faculties of its own, into actual and practical forces. 
Every such force, as circumstances happen, may become a perma- 
nent ruling power or passion ; depressing the harmonio s action of 
all the rest, as well by forming itself into a known vice, or suppos- 
ing itself to be a virtue. Every force or passion within the soul 
is, when self-acting, or acted upon by exterior or interior impres- 
sions, connected with a corresponding sensation, belonging either to 
the nature of joy or the opposite; except in cases where the soul 
discovers the subsistence of no connection whatever of its own 
interest therewith, when its relation thereto remains one of pure 
indifference. 

12. Now, when man or woman reaches the age of puberty, expe- 
rience and reflection have made them acquainted with the presence 
of the seven elemental ingredients of character within them, as 
detailed in § 10. They also possess some knowledge of. God, and 
know that He is present in them, if not as a lover and friend, then 
as a warner and monitor. Knowing themselves as His highly-favored 
creatures, they have confidence in Him, although they may have 
erred, and believe Him disposed to help, assist, and direct them in 
the building up of that temple of happiness, upon which they look 
as their paradise or heaven here below ; and, which to raise and 
construct, they consider themselves authorized and commissioned 
by the forces and aspirations, they find themselves placed in pos- 
session of ; and believe such to be the object of their life, and the 
purpose for which they have been created, feeling a most intense 
desire and longing thereafter. 

13. Knowing themselves created for one another, man and wo- 
man enter the state of wedlock, considering it as the primary con- 
dition of their happiness, and as the one offering the opportunity 
and occasions to develop their character to completeness and 
maturity. Thus they launch their bark of partnership into the 
great ocean of the world, and begin to sail conjointly upon its 
agitated waters. But they soon begin to discover and observe that 
the aforenamed ingredients of formative character, are influenced 
materially by various conditions outside of man, whereby their 
growth becomes checked or promoted, or even entirely distorted 



132 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

from its original into an opposite form. The leading foreign force 
thus influencing the configuration of the elements of human char- 
acter, is discovered to be excess in the absence or presence of means, 
called property, or extreme poverty and extreme wealth. 

14. a.) Thus selfhood, which, as a proper degree of self-love and 
esteem, is the pivot of virtue, and the shrine of man's dignity, as 
a god-made being, if corrupted by poverty or wealth, becomes 
abject, debasing dependence, and humiliating servility ; or super- 
cilious pride, haughty insolence, and overbearing arrogance, con- 
joined with vanity and ambition, in worthless aspirations after 
renown, fame, honor, or power, b.) The love of home and 
property as necessary means to rational ends and aims, is controlled 
by wisdom within proper bounds. But, ruling as a passion, becomes 
debasing penury, stinginess, and grasping covetousness and avarice. 
Its absence, conjoined to wealthy folly, becomes senseless dissipa- 
tion, squandering prodigality, running fast toward beggary, c.) 
The sexual impulse, designed to be gratified within the sacred 
boundaries of chaste and virtuous love, and therein becoming the 
means of reaching to man the cup of highest earthly bliss of which 
his nature is capable, adding thereunto the divine joys of the en- 
nobling and humanizing attributes of tenderly-caring parentage ; 
degenerates into terrible green-eyed jealousy, or into the lascivious, 
self-destroying licentiousness of nauseating, brutal lust : sacrificing, 
with cruel heartlessness, the health, happiness, and life of any 
number of innocent victims, of the opposite sex, to its unholy 
animal desires, without remorse or hesitation ; poisoning the morals 
of community, and giving existence to joyless orphaned beings, 
who curse their progenitors, are a burden to themselves and the 
world, wherein doomed to a life of misery. This vice, being a sin 
as well as a crime, curses itself and others with disease, debility, 
disgust, torture, and endless remorse, d.) The sweet disposition 
of the soul, which in the child is, and ought to remain, good-will 
toward all men, and which, in the affectionate soul of the virtuous 
adult, expands into an active principle of wide-reaching patriotism 
and cosmopolitan philanthropy; shrinks, in its negative opposite into 
narrow-hearted ill-will, bitter envy, sour misanthropy, jaundiced 
malice, and ferocious malignity, having in its motley company all 
the spirits of the dismal deep ; such as cold derision, merciless 



PHENOMENA OF THE SPHERE OP SENSIBILITY. 133 

spite, cruel mockery, pitiless scoff, haughty scorn, proud contempt, 
unfeeling disdain, base treachery, black ingratitude, fiendish grudge, 
and a total disbelief in the existence of any thing noble and gener- 
ous in the nature of man. e.) The joys of the table, intended as 
an attractive means for securing man's life and health, while adding 
to his happiness and enjoyments, — are ever used in view of this 
end, in wise moderation by virtuous self-control ; while inordinate 
appetite becoming passion, and depriving reason of its sway, sinks 
man below the level of the brute, — making him, by despotic intem- 
perance, a headless inebriate, and a swinish glutton. Disability, 
disease, pain, self-contempt, and a premature death, is the sure 
doom to follow, — accompanied by the disgust, contempt, and un- 
pitied aversion of other men. /.) The principle of anger or ire, as 
indicative of latent force, and destined as a weapon for defense and 
self-protection, in cases of necessity, which, in the virtuous adult, 
is to sustain his manhood with the firm courage, necessary to de- 
cided action in the execution of high resolves, — shielding consist- 
ency with perseverance against the fickleness of vascillation and 
irresolution, when confronting difficulty and danger : if absent, or 
not sufficiently present, may cause hesitation, timidity, fear, pusil- 
lanimity, faint-heartedness, abjection, timorousness, fright, terror, 
cowardice, and desponding discouragement ; while its overflowing 
and uncontrolled presence, causes defiance, reckless daring, disdain, 
malignity, vengeance, headstrong persistence, stubborn obstinacy, 
deadly enmity, cruel hostility, and unforgiving ill-will, g.) Life 
being given to man, without having asked for it, as a gift of liberty 
incased into a machinery of necessity, — requires, and enforces, his 
constant attention to keep its wheels in proper motion. From 
disease, natural indolence, levity, absence of sense and energy, or 
from repeated ill-success, — man may become tired of fighting life's 
battle, and, with indifference and unconcern, idle his time away 
in laziness and sloth, as if it was all his own, and no account 
thereof due to anybody. Or, he may precipitate himself into the 
opposite extreme of ever-toiling exertion, without any adequate 
aim worthy thereof, and exhaust himself, without rest, relaxation, 
recreation, and enjoyment, in pursuit of objects, that, to the wise, 
are not worth the having. 

15. The majority of souls, from choice, example, or compulsion, 



134 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

when reaching the forks of life's highway, decide for active fight 
in life's battle. Arrived at this point, the soul has now a knowl- 
edge, such as it is, of its own forces, wants, needs, and the means 
required to reach its objects and aims. It has, likewise, a similar 
knowledge of a certain portion of the nearest circumstances around 
it, and in how far they are favorable or unfavorable to its purposes. 
Necessity compels it to action of some sort, — and, by this action, 
constituting a continuation of life's chain, — it forges, also, the links 
of its clcain of destiny, mixedly composed as links of golden joy, 
silvery wisdom, coppery poison, and unbending iron necessity. 
Eelying upon the correctness and accuracy of its knowledge, and 
the worth and value of the objects, which, led by affection, desire, 
and need, it has fixed upon as purposes and aims of pursuit : the 
soul arms itself with firm and fixed resolves, — to strive, thereafter, 
with all the power at its command, until reaching and securing 
their possession. As, however, it can not always reach the objects 
of its wishes, in a direct line, — but perceives the need of previously 
possessing certain other things, which form the means to the desired 
end, — it patiently sets to work for reaching these necessary means ; 
whereby it not seldom happens, that the acquisition of these means 
either requires so much labor, toil, and time, or that the soul when 
reaching these means, becomes so enamored thereof, — that it loses 
sight of its original aims altogether, and thus forgetting its original 
aims, — turns the very means to ends, into ends themselves. 

16. Thus, furnished with a slender capital of knowledge, a lim- 
ited amount of forces, — the soul, thirsting for happiness, yet de- 
sirous of remaining in harmony with itself, at peace with God, 
nature, mankind, and the institutions of community around it, — 
launches hopefully into life's whirl, of which, already, it knows 
enough to consider its action and chances by no means safe and 
reliable, — since that life's form stands ready to enforce its edicts 
and laws, whether wise or foolish, with the iron arm of condign 
penalties and punishment. Such soul, therefore, can not foresee 
for a certainty, how it will act, in all the various complexities that 
may arise around it, inclosing it in pressing contact on all sides, — 
for want of self-knowledge, and foreknowledge of circumstances, 
no matter however fixed and firm its resolves, determinations and 
principles may happen to be. 



PHENOMENA OF THE SPHERE OF SENSIBILITY. 135 

17. Hardly fairly entered through the door into the new arena 
of its chosen, or forced upon, sphere of action, — the first welcome 
it usually meets with, from those engaged in the same line of call- 
ing, is a disheartening, hostile competition, so as, if possible, thereby 
to crush it out thereof, in the very beginning. Hard as this seems, 
it is overcome by great exertions, voluntary privations, and sacri- 
ficing struggles. Thereby, a firmer platform and means for stronger 
and more extended action are secured ; and things in the future 
begin to loom up more prosperously and promisingly. Meanwhile 
a family is raised, — a religious community has been joined, or, if 
joined before, the interest of its members has become active in sup- 
port of the rising member ; various friendly connections and inti- 
mate liaisons are formed, and there is a flattering prospect that, ere- 
long, as the phrase goes, "we are well-to-do in the world" nay, 
really appear to be now on the level high-road to wealth and 
affluence ; for, means accumulate, and patronage and credit in- 
crease visibly. 

18. But, things are changeable, and fortune is fickle. While in 
the high tide of material progress, and elated more by its prospects 
and flattering promises, than by attention to the everlasting sources 
of joy within the soul 's depth, — from converse with Ood and things 
eternal : here, all at once, and entirely unexpected, a supposed reli- 
giously reliable friend, who was bailed for, or intrusted with, con- 
siderable funds, by our man, treacherously cheats and robs him of 
his sour sweat, in a manner not reachable by law. After a while, 
when this wound is beginning to scar, another trusted visitant at 
the family hearth, more heartless still, poisons, with deadly venom, 
the sanctuary of the domicile, by seducing the mother or daughter 
thereof. There, also, a promising son is ruined, in body and soul, 
by falling into pernicious company. Beloved children are snatched 
away by the hand of death. The calumnious tongue of envy is 
working secretly to undermine and destroy the man's hard-earned 
reputation. By-and-by, heavily-indebted customers fail and em- 
barrass the creditor. And, finally, the strong soul, threatened by 
privation of needs or comforts, hardened into needs by habit, to save 
and protect itself and those under its care, against the evils thus 
believed approaching, — bends, and in turn acts as treacherously 
toward the friends who trusted and confided in its honesty and 



136 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

honor, as those had done, who, originally robbing him, have now 
induced him to despoil others. 

19. "Whatever the remaining balance of that soul's career, through 
the rest of its life, to its final termination, may happen to be, — and 
whether it ends by dying surrounded with the splendor of wealth in 
a palatial mansion, — its stiff corpse laid out upon a gorgeous couch 
of honor, still praised, though no longer envied, by hosts of men ; 
or departs, unwept by any, in the lonely corner, amidst the squalor 
of poverty; or breathes its last as an outcast in the solitary cell of 
the public prison, detested by all and pitied by few ; or surrender- 
ing, more terribly still, its life on the scaffold, for capital crime, to 
the hand of the public executioner, abhorred and shuddered at, by 
the love-heart of humanity itself : the soul, in each of these, as in 
all other cases, toward the approach of the moment of its final 
departure, is forced to take a retrospect of that concatenated line, 
leading in one unbroken whole, of a fixed number of days, from 
its present or latest now, to the other end of its past juvenile then, 
and peruse the inventory of the various items, as they lie, strewed 
in the imperishable living record within, upon the locality of each 
individual day, hour, and moment of the soul's life. 

20. a.) The souls of men, taking such review of their lives' in- 
voice, can all belong to but three main classes, in the scale of absolute 
ethics, or in their relation to God, nature, and man, — being either, 
a.) divine heroes, martyrs, or saints ; b.) sinners, or men deploring 
their conscious imperfections ; or, c.) criminals, or heroes of the 
dismal deep, hardened by habitude, struggling with all might 
to doubt and disbelieve the truth and endurance of their own 
thought ; which three degrees, and the subdivisions appertaining 
thereto, are, however, not those arbitrary ones, as made under these 
names, by men " clad with a little brief authority' 1 '' of any sort, here 
below ; but as the necessitating division, distributing them thus into 
their appropriate classes, according to the intrinsic worth and value, 
subsisting in every soul in the universe, as seen and determined by 
God's all-seeing eye itself, b.) Hence, the long string of profitable 
or unprofitable facts, connected with pleasurable and joyous, or 
painful and grieving sensations, which these souls have experienced 
during their life's struggle, and are now reviewing, as it were, in a 
departing retrospect, — will make a quite different impression upon 



PHENOMENA OF THE SPHERE OF SENSIBILITY. 137 

these souls, as they happen to belong to one or the other of these 
classes, in God's own scale, c.) For the consciousness of the first 
class, with sensations of satisfaction and peace within the soul, be- 
yond any power of language to express, assures them, that the issue 
of their battle is a victory, a triumph so glorious, which gains and 
secures to them the everlastingly-increasing possession of that heaven 
of absolute beauty, truth and goodness, — for which they have suffered 
every thing with patience, and sacrificed and staked not only their 
outer all, but also their inmost self. The souls of the second class, 
in proportion to their proximity to either of the two other classes, 
will feel more or less hope of a final victory, though the same is 
by no means positive and joyful, as the many tokens before their 
eyes, of battles lost in the days of the past, makes them tremble 
for their weakness in the future, unless they learn the wisdom of 
employing aids and helps in a warfare, the strategy of which, they 
do as yet, not fully understand, d.) The last class feel their case as 
one of a defeat so terrible, that they have, look into what quarter 
they may, not one ray of positive hope left by the clinging to 
which, with their own unaided exertions, they could in any degree, 
even be encouraged entertaining the thought of a serious attempt 
of bettering their conditions. For habituated to disbelieve and dis- 
obey their own thought, when counseling the true and the good, and 
always using its light for accomplishing the false, the wicked, and 
the evil : they have now, in that offended thought, a living enemy 
within them, whose majestic, terrific countenance appals them, 
when it strikes them, that now, after all, that very thought proves 
itself as the ultimate true reality of eternally living essence ; and that, 
presently, they are approaching a state of being, where its confronta- 
tion can no longer be evaded or avoided. Hence, hope or joy in 
any degree, arc strangers to the souls of this class, at that moment ; 
and as their occupation has been, for a long time, the habituated 
one, of u solving the storm:" they are now beginning, more than at 
any period before, of realizing the "reaping of the whirlwind," as its 
legitimate fruit. 

21. The catalogue of sensations, experienced from infancy until 
the hour of death, by any single soul, of these classes and their 
various subdivisions, is, so long as it remains in such class, and 
does not rise into a higher, or sink into a lower, notwithstanding 



138 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

the infinite diversity of all souls from one another, in all the main 
features so exactly alike, that the life or history of one such soul, 
of the same class, may be said to be the life and history of every 
other, — precisely like the infinitely diversified variations of resem- 
bling melodies, all founded upon one and the same original text 
of tune. 

22. There is order, of some sort, in every patch of the great 
domain of existence ; if not that of divine beauty from spontaneous 
choice, then that of infernal anarchy from chaotic necessity, or the 
everchanging despotism of alternately ascendant forces. In the first, 
the whole rules all the parts, for and to the equal benefit of each 
individual part ; in the second, detached parts endeavor to rule the 
whole, for the special benefit of some, and without reference to the 
rights, or benefits, of all the rest of the parts. One or the other of 
these two states, becomes eventually the permanent one between all 
the forces of man, and hence, that of every soul. In the class of 
souls defined in § 20, in let. a, the first state prevails, as the ruling 
order ; in that of b, the struggle between the two states alternates 
in results, and is undecided ; in the class c, disorder and anarchy 
have become the established rule ; by the soul's attaching its pas- 
sionate affection to certain conditions of such state. 

23. There are five main classes, or sources, of joys or enjoyments 
for man, — each one of which, the soul, from choice and preference, 
may, by inclination, be induced to select as its centre, transiently or 
permanently ; making, as far as practicable, all the remaining four, 
optionally, at times, contributive to the centre thus selected. These 
classes, or sources, are : a.) the religious, divine, or absolute ; h.) the 
ethical or moral ; c.) the intellectual or aesthetic; d.) the physical or 
mundane; and, e.) the purely individual or selfish; all of which 
slide into, combine with, and occupy relatively the same positions 
and relations to one another, and to the primary origin of them all, 
as do the primary five colors of white, yellow, red, blue, and black, 
among themselves, and toward the solar light and heat from which 
they originate. The sufferings and pains of the soul, do hence, 
likewise, assume their origin and coloring from one or the other, or 
several combined, of these classes and sources, and their various 
compounding and mixing. 

24. The soul, no matter whatever its actual standpoint or 



PHENOMENA OF THE SPHERE OF SENSIBILITY. 139 

locality, upon the eternal scale of ethics may be, has, by the light 
of consciousness, never fully extinguished, even in the blackest 
depths of lowest criminality, some perception and insight into the 
great laws ruling the universe, and the fatally necessary results 
flowing, in accordance therewith, from its own choice and actions. 
Hence it knows also, more or less clearly or dimly, that in the 
values it attaches to things or objects, it may deceive itself in their 
estimates, by the employment of false meters, assumed for their 
measurement, derived only from its solitary self, and without any 
regard to exterior or superior law ; yet, even while enchanted by 
such fictitious and imagined value of things, it can not make itself 
forget the gradation eternally inherent in things ; whereby, as 
sources of joy and enjoyments, greater or smaller in intensity, 
altitude, dimension, and wealth of variety, they stand forever upon 
an immutable scale of intrinsic order, all grades duly connected, 
yet one having absolute precedence before the other, which can 
only be overlooked by a vision naturally unwilling to see it. 
Hence, a,) as the whole is forever greater in power and efficacy 
than any portion of its parts ; as there is no light and heat within 
reach of man, that can benefit, animate, exhilarate, and rejoice him 
like that of the glorious sun of day ; so there are no sensations of 
joy and happiness to be compared to those, which the soul ex- 
periences when in intercourse with God, it is lovingly brought into 
contact with the infinite ocean of that, which constitutes its own 
essence, source, and origin. A"s long, therefore, as the soul knows 
that it loves God, and therein feels God's love within, toward 
itself, the whole universe is illuminated for it, with the rainbow 
harmonies of celestial light and peace, and all objects therein 
radiate security, felicity, joy, and beatitude, into its fibres with 
streaks of electrical delight ; and, on the other side, there are no 
griefs, no sadness, so joy-and-ray-less, as those, arising from the 
soul's estrangement from its God and creator. Its whole action, in 
that unnatural state, is a perpetual flight, as it were, from its own 
self, in order, by a never ceasing movement from one object, thing, 
enjoyment, dissipation to another, to drown the recollection of God, 
itself, and the past and future, if possible, in one unbroken state of 
willful, deluded forgetfulness. b.) Next in value, and inseparably 
connected with those experienced in the preceding, and receiving 
12 



140 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

their worth, value, and strength from them, are the sensations of 
joy, derived from virtue's triumphs over the soul's centripetal 
force of self, whereby its central gravity is prevented from becoming 
an unduly contracted, secretly or openly rebellious state, within the 
great confederation of God's ineffably grand union government in 
His whole creation. Thereby man making himself, by deeds of 
heroism and divine virtue to his fellow-man, the visible repre- 
sentative of God's goodness, wisdom, and love, rouses in his own, 
and the souls of his fellow-men, those sweet sensations of benfac- 
tion and gratitude, of veneration and magnanimity, of friendship 
and affectionate esteem, which are the inevitable effects- of virtue's 
struggles, to act at all times, in sight of God's love, and, upon all 
occasions, for the benefit and high destiny of men and the race, as 
God's love prompts. Beside, such examples of true virtue, may set 
an entire nation into a heavenly blaze of divine aspirations after all 
things great and good, c.) Thirdly, the pursuit of science and art, 
being the theory and practice of the true and beautiful, underlying 
the phenomenal apparition of nature and the concrete world, no- 
bilitate and expand man's soul, increase his power, and are hence a 
source of gratification and joy, as they multiply and increase his 
means and capacity for enlarging his sphere of utility and benefi- 
cence, and therefrom realize a greater harvest of pure, humanely- 
divine joys, d.) Next, the sphere of any of the various practical 
callings, of labor, exchange, and intercourse between man and 
man, so far as its intrinsic nature is truly necessary and beneficent, 
and not, per se, hurtful and injurious to himself and his fellows, 
can give him sensations of joy and delight, while it furnishes 
necessary and indispensable means to man's various ends, and the 
enlargement of useful and beneficent action. But in this, as well 
as in the preceding and succeeding sphere, the soul may become 
entangled in the means, so that it fastens its affections thereupon, 
as if they were the ends. Thus, things become men's gods ; for a 
man's highest treasure is to him tlie God he adores, worships, and 
proffers his supreme love to. c.) Finally, not only the physical sen- 
sations of pleasure attached to the gratification of the necessary 
bodily wants, but also the higher pleasures derived from sources, 
b, c, and d, with them, may, without even running the enjojmient 
of physical joys into vicious excess, all become the object of pas- 



PHENOMENA OF THE SPHERE OF SENSIBILITY. 141 

sional, egotistic, and selfish use, so as to be loved by man as if they, 
or any one or more of them, were the actual and highest object of 
his creation and final destiny, and hence attach a false and fictitious 
value thereto ; whereby, as long as it prevails, he can never have 
any access to God's own joys, experienced only in the sphere above 
described in a. 

25. Now, then, we have two main classes of souls, with one 
standing between them, playing alternately into the sphere of the 
first, and next into that of the second. To one or the other of 
these classes, every soul on earth must belong at any given mo- 
ment of its existence ; for each human soul is either at peace and 
in friendship, or at discord and in enmity with God, in a higher or 
lower degree. From this main source of sensation of joy or grief, 
the impressions from all other sources take their hue and tint, as 
all colors show their presence, real nature, and existence only, by 
the appearance of solar light, and vanish alike and entirely as soon 
as it totally disappears. 

26. But like he, who is in health, is subject to be impressed by 
pains, as well as he whose health is defective ; yet, as a general 
rule, less often and painfully ; so the soul, at peace with God, does 
not cease to be impressed pleasantly or painfully, by either changes 
of its condition perceived from within, or sensations impressed 
upon it by occurrences of its surroundings. For every soul, by the 
destiny that has ruled the formation of its organism and character, 
locality and total surroundings, is thereby placed in a condition, 
either more or less isolated, or into company or proximity with 
other souls, that are either alike or unlike to it, in the main point ; 
and hence, by their intercourse, influence its sensations of joy or 
grief, and are enhancing or diminishing its effect positively or nega- 
tively. The position of every soul is hence, in respect to the grade 
of influence, impressed by sensations upon it, at all times condi- 
tioned, by the amount of power which it is able to exercise over 
the threefold machinery, ever engaged and concerned, in every 
single sensation experienced, namely : a.) The machinery constitut- 
ing the encasement of its own wonderful being ; b.) the machinery 
of exterior native surrounding it on all hands ; and, c.) the ma- 
chinery of the concrete state of the world prevailing in the time and 
locality, where the soul's lot is cast ; all of which are so interwoven 



142 THE TEMPLE OP TKUTH. 

with one another, that the soul can not experience a single sensa- 
tion in which all of them are not equally concerned, at one time, 
as the leading, at another as the co-or subordinate subject. 

27. The diversity of these sensations is multiplied further into 
infinity of variety and modality, by sex, age, relation, and inner 
and outer states of the soul ; such as health and disease, wealth or 
poverty, ignorance or knowledge, weakness or power, employment 
or idleness, youth or mature or old age, boyhood or girlhood, 
adolescence or maidenhood, marriage or singleness, parentage and 
maternity, or barrenness ; and, by being in such states, the child, 
son, daughter, sister, brother, bride, bridegroom, wife, husband, 
father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, grandchild, relative, com- 
panion, acquaintance and friend, or stranger to, or enemy of, the 
soul, upon, or by, whom, the impressed sensation of joy or grief is 
made, and the relation of the parties concerned to morality, piety, 
and virtue, or vice, sin and crime, and their immediate or pros- 
pective results. 

28. It will hence be perceived, inasmuch as joy and grief axe the 
leading forces that rule the soul in the formation and development 
of its character, that the conjoint elements of time and eternity, 
of the physical and spiritual universe, amid and in all which, the 
soul cotemporaneously exists, are all, in turn, concerned in the 
production of the infinity of impressed sensations, which are found 
linked to the history of every soul, or forming, in reality, the main 
part of that history itself. Hence, by being diversely impressed, 
from all other souls, in regard to admixture of elements, every 
single soul, by incorporating fixed qualities and habits of desire and 
aspiration into its character, makes its state a concrete one, composed 
of different distinct states of loves and hates ; affected differently, 
by things and events, from every other soul, and singling out, of 
the boundless ocean of existence, only a small number of objects, 
upon which, for the present, it directs its sail of aspiration, leaving 
all the balance, from ignorance or indifference, entirely unnoticed. 
Hence, speaking of the countless sensations experienced, as a 
general rule, by every soul, we thereby mean to denote a certain 
modified definite quantity, of all kinds and sorts of sensations, 
found in degrees, shades, and mixtures, present, by parts, at one 
t'.me or other, in every single soul, but the mighty whole of which, 



PHENOMENA OF THE SPHERE OF SENSIBILITY. 143 

consisting in its concretely distributed parts, being only experienced 
by the aggregated soul of the whole human race. 

29. Before a clear insight into the nature of the various sensa- 
tions of the soul is obtainable, a few facts, appertaining to the laws 
that govern the soul's action, must be stated : a.) In the first 
instance, let it be kept in mind, that all the sensations of the soul, 
so far as their inmost nature is concerned, like the thoughts of the 
mind, are invisible to the eye, and intangible to the rest of the 
senses, excepting the impression they effect, upon the sense of 
feeling of the party concerned. For, although the eye, counte- 
nance, and often the whole bodily frame, announce in general, by 
outward signs, when the soul is violently agitated, by hope, ex- 
pectancy, fear, fright, love, joy, passion, grief, or exciting emotions 
of any kind, yet the soul may acquire more or less control over its 
sensations, and thereby prevent them, more or less, from showing 
their presence and inner force by exterior manifestation, b.) Next, 
there is never a sensation experienced within the soul, which is not 
accompanied by a thought of the intellect; and whenever that thought 
is entirely removed and the attention of the intellect is absorbedly 
fixed upon another thought, the soul is compelled to co-operate with 
the intellect in beholding and examining the new object or thought, 
and thereby to forget its afore-had sensation. For, as the soul and 
intellect, with fancy and imagination, form but one mind, or uni- 
tary spiritual being, capable of beholding only one single object, at one 
and the same moment of time, the soul has no power to contra- 
vene this law, but must obey it whenever the conditipns thereto 
arise, c.) Like there are in nature, sundry things operating by 
inherent essence, as sweet, sour, bitter, salt, etc., upon the sense of 
taste, and as cutting, burning, and corroding, upon bodily feeling ; 
so there are those which, by inherent nature, are pleasant or painful 
to the soul, inasmuch as their nature operates for or against that of 
the soul, or against its innate and inborn aspirations, or those long- 
ings which are the legitimate results of its innermost character. 

30. a.) From this, and its unity with mind and body, it follows 
that all things, which please or displease, the mind and body, and 
their nature and habit, will, in the degree of value affixed to the 
objects of such pleasure or displeasure, produce a corresponding 
jovful or contrary sensation upon the soul, more or less deep, great 



144: THE TEMPLE OP TEUTH. 

and lasting, or surfacial and transient, as the case happens to be. 
b.) Hence an ocean of joyful or grieving sensations, results from 
the soul's friendly or unfriendly relation to the Supreme Being, as 
no source of sensation can exist, affecting the soul, like the source 
of its own life, wherein it is, subsists, lives, swims, breathes, moves, 
and has its being, c.) Next in degree, it is pleased or displeased, 
with its own and the moral or immoral qualities of the human 
beings with whom it comes into more or less close connection. 
For, beauty, truth, and goodness, challenge the soul's love and admi- 
ration, as hideousness, untruth, and malignity, arouse its aversion and 
abhorrence. Hence, when seeing the former livingly exemplified 
and active, in-honest, virtuous and conscientious men and women, 
or in its own bosom, and perceiving the latter acted out by people 
given to dishonesty, vice, and wickedness, or acting thus itself, the 
soul must approve in the former, and condemn in the latter, its 
own individual with the general case, d.) The incidental attributes 
appertaining to men, such as natural gifts, abilities, acquirements in 
science, skill, property, etc., form only accidents in the soul's valua- 
tion of ethical character, whose value changes in proportion as their 
possession and use are properly applied, and made subservient to, 
great moral aims or the contrary, e.) Things and forces acting from 
necessity, can never affect the sensation of the soul like the actions 
coming from man, as it, from its own inmost perception, must 
assume man, to be free and spontaneously acting, at least so far, as 
the selection and decision of choice between a benign and malevolent 
motive is concerned. Hence, the accidental injuries inflicted by 
nature's forces, are seldom calculated to inflict sensations of great 
grief upon the soul, as there is no poison of malignity infused into 
the wounds which they occasionally strike to man. 

31. a.) Now, let it be remembered, that every human soul has, 
during its progress from youth to more advanced age, formed for 
itself from the elements specified in § 10, first an incipient, and 
afterward a more or less confirmed character ; which may be more 
or less strong and harmonious, or weak and defective ; whereby 
certain modes and impulses have become fixed by habit, nursing 
and petting, urging the soul to wish, long for, and aspire after cer- 
tain objects with great ardor, and desire the absence of their con- 
traries no less decisively. J.) Next, let it be kept in mind, that the 



PHENOMENA OF THE SPHERE OP SENSIBILITY. Ho 

soul, every human soul, ever aspiring after unity in and out of 
itself, — has at all times one object or other in view, which, tran- 
siently or permanently is paramount to all its others. Such object, 
is that of the soul's adoration and worship for the time being. This 
object, upon which the soul concentrates its passionate love and 
affection, may thus, in nature and quality, be a more or less transient 
or permanent, worthless and unworthy, or valuable and worthy one. 
It consists in things, persons or ideas ; such as wealth, honor, 
science, art, pleasure, power, ambition, or virtue, love, friendship, 
and religion, c.) With the object the soul thus singles out as its 
highest, it becomes married in its innermost recess. That object, 
whatever be its nature, noble or ignoble, imparts the same to th.e 
soul, and the soul, embracing the same as its highest aim, thereby 
becomes as large or small, but also as strong or weak, as this its 
inmost, longed-for, aim. Hence it becomes clear, that there can be 
no force and power comparable to the access and assistance which 
the soul acquires to its forces, if the object of its supreme affection is 
the Being of beings, and Cause of causes. For, in this case, the soul, 
for an absolute certainty knows, that the object of its love and ad- 
miration, concentrates within itself, all beauty, truth, goodness, all 
beatitude, wisdom, and 'power, and is, hence, forever and eternally 
lovable beyond all measure and limits, d.) The soul thus centering 
and fixing its supreme affection upon that, which ever exists and is 
ever present, becomes entirely dependent thereon for all its main 
joys or griefs ; and in the same ratio independent of the influence 
of natural forces as secondary causes upon its sensation, inasmuch 
as by its relation to deity, it acquires a control over them all, obtain- 
ing therein, as it were, an all-ruling balance-wheel, easily regulating 
all the rest of its machinery. 

32. a.) If, thus, God, or a virtuous and lovable human being, 
has become the supreme object of the soul's affection, — it will 
always endeavor to place and keep the forces of its being, com- 
posed as elements into its character, in a position of harmony and 
concord, and preserve this their order by presence of mind and 
self-control. Hence neither selfhood, love of property, the sexual 
impulse, the social principle, combative self-defense, alimentiveness, 
or energy of action, or the want of it, — can, at any time, overcome 
the soul's prudence. Because it knows that its adored object only 



146 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

smiles witli grace and approbation upon it, when its self-esteem is 
moderated by the humbling remembrance of known defects ; the 
love of means by prudent liberality ; the sexual impulse guided by 
fruitive chastity ; envy kept down by noble good-will ; alimentive- 
ness regulated by sobriety, temperance and moderation ; anger 
restricted by meekness and mildness of temper ; and love of rest 
and action ruled by prescriptions of wisdom and virtue, and sub- 
ordinated to the achievement of the objects of its highest aspira- 
tion, b.) Such soul now, by its total attachment to one highest 
object, introduces thereby a unitary system of aspiring and acting 
into itself, whereby it and others may at all times know before- 
hand, how it will act under a given state of the case. Its affections 
and aversions, its joys and griefs, its hopes and fears, its virtues 
and weaknesses, — all range themselves now, with every thing in 
the universe, on one or the other of two opposing sides. On the 
one is its safety, welfare, prosperity, fortune, comfort, pleasure, joy, 
bliss, delight, extasy, felicity, and beatitude, the securing and enjoy- 
ing of which, constitutes its heaven and supreme aspiration. On 
the other side are its insecurity, ill-fare, adversity, misfortune, sorrow, 
sadness, grief, dejection, melancholy, misery, unhappiness, and un- 
blessedness, the suffering of all which, with its causes, constituting 
its hell, out of the reach of which the soul endeavors to flee. 
Hence, that soul will regard and treat with distrust and jealousy, 
whatever tends to mislead, and with decided animosity, hostility, 
and enmity, — whatever actually opposes, while embracing with 
amity, friendliness and fraternization, every thing and being that 
favors, its march and progress to its grand goal. 

33. a.) To please, delight, and gratify its beloved love, has now 
become the soul's highest and fixed impulse. For this reason its 
desires, wishes, longings, aspirings, endeavors, exertions and strivings 
are all directed to the acquisition of those virtuous qualities, by the 
presence of which its love is pleased ; and to discard and avoid the 
harboring of vicious propensities and habits, which it knows as 
repugnant to its beloved, and which would lessen its esteem, affec- 
tion, and good- will. Hence, this soul, which theretofore was subject 
to changing moods, at one time of superficial levity, animation, 
lightheartedness, mirth, merriment, jollity, sport, joviality jocun- 
dity, and bantering, easily changing into passionate pets of ill- 



PHENOMENA OF THE SPHERE OF SENSIBILITY. 147 

temper : and at another time ruled by clouds of dejection, spleen, 
ennui, trouble, vexation, depression, anger, defiant sauciness, and 
ill- willed arrogance ; has now, with firmest, most earnest resolve, 
concentrated its unremitting attention all the time, to avoiding the 
shady side^ of all these states in the soul, and introduce in their 
stead a stable constancy, unshaking perseverance and firm stability 
of willing and doing, wishing and acting into its own character ; 
knowing, that alone by such course, it can furnish tangible proof 
of increasing sincerity, honesty, faith, attachment, affection, friend- 
ship, gratitude, devotion and fidelity to its beloved; and in return 
thereby gain the increasing trust, confidence, regard, esteem, conside- 
ration, and favor of the same, b.) Having thus taken its final stand, 
the soul hastens with alacrity to arm itself with firmness, resolution, 
courage, boldness, daring, and audacity, to a formidable defense and 
battling against every thing opposing its progress to its great aim. 
Knowing its beloved, wherever applicable, to favor toleration, con- 
cession, forbearance, forgiveness, generosity, magnanimity, compassion, 
mercy, sympathy, charity, clemency, benignity ; it rules its inclination 
or disinclination, whenever provokingly stimulated by heaving 
indignation toward ire, rage and' fury, by causes of shuddering 
abomination and detestable abhorrence, by the iron arm of self- 
control, and thereby overcomes the sensations of nausea, aversion, 
displeasure, disgust, sorrow, anguish, and horror, thus preventing 
hostility, animosity, enmity, and vindictiveness, from breaking out 
into acts of sudden manifestation of passion, when offended justice 
almost appears to cry aloud for immediate vengeance and revenge, 
against the doings of disJwnesty, baseness, meanness, knavery, vil- 
lainy, wickedness, treachery, maliciousness, insolence, arrogance, haugh- 
tiness, frivolity, and heaHless arbitrariness. 

34. a.) For the soul knows and sees by this time clearly, that 
all action, even the resistance to evil, must be controlled by calm 
wisdom, otherwise it never can do any good. It is, therefore, also 
aware, that, misled by the mass of experienced unkind treatment 
from one another, the adult portion of mankind in general, and the 
portion active thereof in exterior life in particular, entertain a latent 
sentiment of distrust and hostility, more or less developed, toward 
one another, whereby their condition is not only a permanent state 
of "armed neutrality^ and unsleeping vigilance, forever on its guard 
13 



148 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

against suspected surprise, and attack, but which, hy its very nature 
of unsubdued irritability, is breaking out into acts of unfeeling self- 
ishness as soon and whenever a sufficient incentive, of a positive or 
negative kind, presents to leaning and propensity the incitive, 
enticement, allurement, irritation, temptation, or seduction. And 
that, when thus brought into a state of passionate excitation of a 
high degree, the souls of men forget, and burst asunder all restric- 
tions of fear from ulterior consequences, even when known as in- 
evitable, be they shame, dislwnor, remorse, disease, or often death 
itself. For the extreme pressure of indigence, poverty, destitu- 
tion, the sting of pain, hunger, and starvation, the harassing of 
care, anger, envy, anguish, jealousy, vindictiveness, and despair, 
the ruling habits of lewdness, avarice, ambition, and the wantonness 
of conscious power and opulence, become, when roused, in a man- 
ner, involuntary brute forces, like those of the maniac and beastly 
inebriate, laughing to scorn the pale warnings of wisdom, and leap- 
ing, with the ferocious spring of the tiger, upon their victim, per- 
form, in the deed of crushing, an act of fatal, irresistible necessity. 
&.) The soul thus perceives, that the smiles upon the countenance 
of the human social state are commingled with grim distortions, and 
serve but as a thin gauzy veil, poorly covering the boiling caldron 
of volcanic seething passions of every description and degree, 
furiously fomenting beneath. It perceives in that huge kettle, 
"spirits black, blue and gray," mixed up with those of white, yellow, 
and reel ; the motives and impulses to honesty, piety and virtue, 
with those to vice, sin, and crime, commingling in one motley 
chaos. The soul sees, by history, that this anarchic moral state of 
man, is not new ; but, beginning in the gray annals of the remotest 
past, has, with trifling exceptions on a small scale, as the general 
ubiquitously operating rule, come up to its present, latest day. 
Hence, it sees in that state nothing else, than an exemplification of 
the great absolute law of causality, whereby, as soon as the causes 
of things are given and brought forth : their effects must forever 
follow with fatal, mechanical, inevitable necessity. Seeing the 
presence of such an all-powerful machinery, existing around and 
within the reach of man, now used by himself for his own deterio- 
ration, torment, rack, and the infliction of excruciating agonies : the 
soul sees therein, also, the infallible instrument of salvation, as soon 



PHENOMENA OF THE SPHERE OF SENSIBILITY. 149 

as the huge machine, now working his destruction, because under 
no rational guidance, shall be brought under the control of reason, 
intellect, and ivisdom. 

35. The soul foresees this eventual result, as the necessary effect 
of the machinery itself, because it perceives that its dire tuition by 
pain, want, care, trouble, toil, vexation, affliction, sorrow, anxiety, anx- 
iousness, anguish, fear, terror, despair, despondency, horror, and 
enormity, with all other infernal ingredients of the calendar of 
crime, misery and suffering ; although terribly distorting the ce- 
lestial form of beauty, innate in the souls of the victims ; does, yet, 
thank God, not annihilate one single life-principle, in the soul of 
humanity itself. For, it cannot be denied, that the race, at least 
a sufficient portion thereof, amid all the unfavorable conditions 
attached to its career, has, though irregularly, and as it were, by 
single fits and solitary starts, yet nevertheless, actually progressed 
from a worse to a better state. Hence it perceives, with gladness, 
that notwithstanding the vast amount of the indecency, impropriety, 
incontinence, licentiousness, revelry, dissipation, debauchery, and like- 
wise the manifestations of the various grades of malevolence and 
abuse of means and power, into which no small portion of souls, by 
opportunity, pernicious example, and powerful temptations, are 
seduced and inducted ; the public sentiment, whenever speaking out, 
is compelled to disapprove of them all, in terms of decided con- 
demnation. By this, the existence of conscientiousness, veneration, 
and reverence, in the public bosom, is in a negative method, as 
clearly shown, as by the positive tribute of involuntary admiration 
and spontaneous affection, which, as an act of justice, it cheerfully 
yields, to the true dignity, of established merit and acknowledged 
excellence. 

36. Hence that soul looks upon the world with great hope, and 
is prepared, at all times, to do and contribute the utmost that lies 
in its power, to assist in effecting that world's final redemption and 
salvation, out of its hellish condition of preponderating practical 
hate, into one, wherein the principles of divine love, virtue, and 
goodness, are prevailing. Henceforward, it lets no opportunity slip 
by, through which it may come, were it but one step, nearer to this 
great and glorious point. Seeing thousands of souls, who from 
ignorance, example, or perversion, worshiping in blind idolatry one 



150 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

or the other of the selfish-perishable idols of the transient hour, 
sneer with ridiculing coldness, or imaginary contempt, at the sim- 
plicity, self-denial, and unassuming meekness of souls with a 
character which cares less about the praise or censure of others, than 
its own inmost self-approbation ; this soul finds its comfort, satisfac- 
tion, content, peace, hilarity, solace, and consolation, in constant 
obedience to the calls of high duty ; paying no attention whatever 
to criticisms of ignorant stupidity, or malicious dullness, upon its 
" onward and upward " course. 

37. Therefore this soul now is gradually becoming rich and 
opulent in the possession of all the virtues, and the high hopes and 
promises they engender in its own bosom, by which its insatiate 
desire is led to making the attempt to grasp and appropriate the 
whole of them, by medium of ever-renewing, never-yielding en- 
deavors. Beginning by courting amity, friendliness, kindness, 
courtesy, amiability, and loveliness, humility, modesty, simplicity, 
attentiveness, complacency, assiduity, it conquers them, and next 
pays its attention to composure, equanimity, fearlessness, equity, 
justice, generosity, acknowledgment, thankfulness, devotedness, 
peaceableness, truthfulness, faithfulness, cleanliness, purity, chastity, 
activity, industry, love of order, and finishes its primary victories 
by engrafting temperance, moderation, continence, economy, fru- 
gality, contentedness, vigilance, foresight, prudence earnestness, 
sincerity, decisiveness, circumspection, discretion, taciturnity, with 
patience, firmness, and never-yielding constancy, into the wreath 
adorning a hero-soul's brow. For a hero-soul unfalteringly relies 
upon the promise : " That the pure in heart shall be blessed by be- 
holding God;" since in it is heaven's highest reward, and the only 
sanctity and holiness acknowledged as valid and genuine before the 
tribunal of reason and in the courts of life eternal. 

38. a.) Enlightened thus, by wisdom from on high, that soul 
now clearly sees and understands the working of the machinery of 
its own sensations, and therein that of other souls. It plainly per- 
ceives that the presence of every virtue or vice, of every attribute 
of strength or weakness, of every habit or ruling passion, is felt in 
the soul of the possessor, as well as in the souls upon whom they 
act, as a special sensation, differing from all others ; and that all 
things and forces in the universe, when producing impressions in 



PHENOMENA OF THE SPHERE OF SENSIBILITY. 151 

the soul, differ in the sensations so produced, as do their forms, 
essence, and being. Hence, as every thought of the intellect can 
produce such sensation within the soul, these sensations are as 
various, multiform, and many, as there are thoughts in the mind to 
which each soul is married, b.) As every soul is more or less con- 
scious of the subsistence of an eternal brother-and-sister-hood, 
between all souls past, present, and to come ; hence of a solidarity 
of the whole human race, which binds the single destiny of every 
individual limb forever to the final destiny of the grand trunk ; 
each single soul hates to be forced, and experience compulsion and 
harshness from other souls, but desires to be led by lenity, kind- 
ness, tenderness, and love ; or, if to be driven at all, to be so only 
by the mighty forces of truth, necessity, and destiny ; which all 
the soul acknowledges as legitimate powers, entitled to enforce 
obedience to their edicts, by direct mandates to intellect and voli- 
tion themselves, c.) To minor forces the soul often opposes 
indifference, option, indolence or obstinacy, not seldom rising into 
passive or active resistance to their menace or threat. Want, 
indigence, weakness, humbles, and abundance, opulence, and plenty, 
will materially enhance the soul in its native or developed bellig- 
erence and pride, and hence predispose it differently, for the recep- 
tion and mode of feeling certain classes of sensations. This rule 
applies to all moral qualities, or their absence and opposites. For 
improvidence and neglect, will, by their effects, in due time, pro- 
duce agitation, self-condemnation, and remorse or repentance ; 
whereas sagacity and foresight, providing security, safety, and 
peace, are ever sure of self-approval and approbation. And, 
finally, are unfaithfulness and breach of trust as certain to find a 
reward corresponding to the degree of their enormity, as benignity, 
benevolence, and beneficence will, in the end, smiling-admiring-and- 
lovingly be approved of by high heaven above, and all men here 
below, not even excepting the miserable and wretched victims of, or 
to, wickedness themselves. 

39. a.) We have now, in a condensed manner, concentrated all 
the positive or negative material, active in producing the infinity 
of sensations, to which man's soul is susceptible, and subject at one 
time or other. Thereby every single soul is clearly perceived to 
be an actual universe within itself ; differing, so far as modes of 



152 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

combination in the elements of its construction and composition of 
character are concerned, from every other soul ; yet, at the same 
time, subject alike with all other souls, to the supreme rule, not 
only, at all times, of the great law of causation, but likewise gifted, 
in the main, with the same general forces and principles, that con- 
stitute the essence of all souls, and compel and necessitate each 
one to aspire and strive after one and the same universal aim ; 
embracing all the special aims deposited in each soul, by the destiny 
that ruled its primary formation and posterior development, b.) 
Man has not created himself. As a child, and for a great while after- 
ward, he does not know what lies slumberingly within him. As 
long as his forces thus lie latent, they can do neither good nor harm 
to himself or others, as during infancy the mantle of innocence 
wraps them up alike in its ample folds. But when his forces 
develop, as powerful ruling passions, into virtues or vices, scattering 
joy or " damnation round the land," the case is bravely altered for 
himself and all others. It then appears that vice is not the mere 
absence of virtue, and acting only as a simple negative, but that it 
contains, like fire or extreme frigidity, a quality of positive de- 
structiveness, victimizing the health and happiness of its possessor 
and that of many others, c.) Now, then, no man is ever sure of 
his happiness here, or wherever else he may exist, until he obtains 
that virtuous control over all his forces, which reason, conscience, 
and nature alike tell him, that he ought to have and exercise. To 
acquire this self-control to the full degree needed, without the help 
of the great God that created him, and in whom he lives and 
moves, man will find, eventually, to be an attempt virtually alike 
to that as if his eye, ear, nose, arm, leg, or other limb, after torn 
off and severed from the body, would try to live by themselves, or 
he, the man himself, imagine to continue living without inhaling 
the atmosphere that surrounds him. Hence, in proportion as man 
learns to hww God, not in mere theory, but in living practice, he will 
acquire the knowledge and power to control the various sensations 
and passions of his soul. As soon as he has acquired this power, 
he has therein made the greatest conquest ever possible to be made 
in this universe, in all time and eternity, containing the " treasure 
beyond cdl price." 

40. a.) The intellect of any man, who has paid any attention to 



PHENOMENA OF THE SPHERE OF SENSIBILITY. 153 

the sensations experienced by himself ; or has, in others, observed 
the flashing eye, the flushed or pale cheek, the quivering and com- 
pressed lip, the dilating or oppressedly heaving bosom, the rousing 
or sinking nerves, the bracing, shaking, or trembling limbs and 
frame, accompanied by the firmly and higher, or unstable and 
lower-beating, palpitating heart, while under a positive or negative 
state of high excitation : can no longer entertain a shadow of a doubt 
of the existence of a perfectly organized machinery, whereby all the 
sensations of the soul announce their presence and action upon 
specific organs within the body of man. b.) To discover and spe- 
cify the construction and various parts of that machinery, is the 
province and problem of psychology, physiology, and comparative 
anatomy combined, and forms no part of our present investigation, 
in which we have only to do with the various facts connected with 
the soul's sensations, and their general bearing upon man's misery, 
Jiappiness, and final destiny. But from a survey of the array of 
unassailable facts, which we have compressed into this lengthy and 
highly important chapter, men of thought will hardly fail perceiving 
that henceforward psyclwlogy is rendered possible as a concrete 
science; so that, by application of the proper methods and means, 
the knowledge of the individual soul of man, may, by degrees, 
become as definite, certain, and reliable as that of any other sphere, 
conquered by the patient perseverance of his indomitable intellect, 
up to our present time, c.) In what these methods and means to 
arrive at such consummate knowledge of the soul consist, we shall 
indicate in its due time and place, as soon as a prospect shall pre- 
sent itself to bring them to the " experimentum crucis "-test of 
practicable application, for human use and benefit. For the 
present, let it suffice, that we have, by analysis, clearly shown the 
primary elements of soul and character, as resulting by necessity, 
from the principles and needs composing man's being. And, as 
all other sciences, were only possible to be made, what they now 
are, after their primary elements had been discovered, ascertained, 
and defined ; so the science of the soul, consisting until now, in 
mere abstruse, uncertain, intangible, unreliable, opinions and specu- 
lations of individual thinkers, interspersed here and there by a few 
valuable facts and observations, may now, after thus brought within 



154 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

reach of every competent intellect, take a fresh start, and soon 
assume the highly important station in the vast system of mental 
sight, to which by eternal destination it is entitled, and which here- 
tofore, by reason of its unfathomed depth and never unraveled 
complication, it was impossible for it to assume. 

41. a.) When, now recapitulating in substance what we have 
laid down in this chapter, remembering that the dualistic aspiration 
of the soul is the avoidance of "fear, trouble, grief, enmity, and 
hate" and the securing of " safety, peace, joy, friendship, and love," 
it will become palpably clear that these two opposite conditions are 
only each a legitimate reflex of the state and character, which the 
soul of every man, by choice and habit, has made the prevailing 
and permanent one within itself, b.) For if, and as long as, the 
soul is weak, ignorant, passionate, vicious, and wicked : it is ruled 
by the pain and impetuosity of its sensations, always more or less 
akin and affiliated to the qualities that are vicious and ultra-selfish, 
and hence ever and always leaning and calculated toward producing 
new causes for mischief and grief, and enhancing cause and effect 
of those that are present. Thereby one vicious sentiment springs 
up, takes root, and becomes a ruling sensation within it, after 
another, until becoming confirmed, its constant state is as dissimilar 
to, and hence as distant from, the nature of absolute goodness, as dark- 
ness and polar frigidity, are from daylight and summer's genialty. 
Thereby gradually hardened, in a more or less degree, into the state 
of sin, vice, and crime, the soul knows that thus it is at enmity with 
God, itself, mankind, and the universe, and hence its condition is one 
of utter joylessness, approaching in suffering to perpetual terror, 
hate, and despair, c.) But if, by God's grace and its own sincere co- 
operation, the soul has been so fortunate as to make its state and 
character strong, enlightened, composed, virtuous, and good, it rules by 
wisdom all the sensations occurring within it, thereby leaning 
toward all those qualities belonging to the divine principle of vir- 
tue, whereby the causes for mischief and grief are overcome and 
transformed and changed into sources of joy and good. Thereby 
the soul appropriates one virtuous quality, with its effects and 
abiding consequences after another, until confirmed by their perma- 
nent use and unremitting practice, it finally becomes a passive, 



PHENOMENA OF THE SPHERE OF SENSIBILITY. 155 

implicitly-obedient instrument in the hand of absolute omnipotent 
Goodness, devoid of all selfish aspirations and sensations ; while, 
within its centre, as humble and unassuming, as innocent, guileless, 
and happy as the spotless, uncorrupted child. 

42. a.) The language of man is rich in descriptive terms of an 
infinite variety of sensations, both of intense joy and crushing 
grief. But, with all its wealth of tint, it can not paint the heaven 
of a soul, perfectly at peace and in friendship with God, itself, 
humanity, and creation. It may depict the blissful happiness of 
the virtuous male and female, whose hearts, in faithful, chaste, 
passionate affection, have melted into one ; it may portray the en- 
chantment of the happy mother, who, in the healthful, blooming, 
vigorous, angelically-smiling babe, fondling upon her bosom or lap, 
has the visible reward of true virtuous love, and wise affection, and 
the living pledge of their endurance ; it may draft the unclouded 
felicity of that spotless, innocent, little angel itself ; drinking, yet 
unmixed with a world's poison, the honey of pure love, out of a 
true mother's infinitely tender breast ; and, in undivided con- 
sciousness, sucking the unbroken stream of God's own superior 
beatitude ; it may paint the paradise of ever-gushing joys, spouting 
from the perpetual spring of true friendship ; it may essay to 
delineate the toils and labors, the griefs and sufferings, the hopes 
and disappointments, and final successes and triumphs of divine 
genius and heroism, struggling against self and destiny, for virtue 
and humanity ; but conjoining all these into one glorious whole, it 
will yet, combinedly, not by far, reach up to that ineffable state of 
blessedness, destined for the soul already here on earth, which from 
love to its God, by God's help, conquers itself and all things else — 
Kev. xxi, 7. For, though adorned by the possession of all the virtues, 
as a nuptial gift from its Beloved, the soul forgets them all in the 
glorious presence of the Everliving-Neverchanging. In its intimate 
intercourse with absolute Goodness, the essence of which being an 
infinite ocean of love, joy, affection, tenderest emotion, loveliest 
wisdom, and benign power, the soul, by raptures and extasies of 
termless delight, is swallowed up into its divine source and perme- 
ated by its eternal essence of primeval beauty, life, and highest reality. 
Mixing its own thought, in streams of intellectual electricity, with 



156 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

the source of all thought, it receives as answers such fondling sen- 
sations of a love so intense, that human language has, as yet, no 
terms for the same, since they constitute the bridechamber's se- 
crets between every faithful soul and its eternal, infinitely loving 
Bridegroom. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



FACTS AND REFLECTIONS PRELIMINARY TO THE ANALYSIS OF 
MAN'S MIND. 

1.) In Chapters xi, xii, xiii, xiv, xv, xvi, and xvii, we have now 
analyzed the senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste, and bodily 
feeling. Each one of these senses, places man in a direct connec- 
tion with a specific department of nature, — so that, when deprived 
of sight, be is deprived of the canal connecting him with all the phe- 
nomena of the visible universe • by deprivation of hearing he loses all 
the phenomena of sound with their vastly extended consequences ; 
devoid of touch he remains a stranger to the impressions derived 
by that sense ; the absence of smell would leave him unprotected 
against a vitiated, putrid atmosphere ; the loss of taste would deprive 
him of all the impressions obtained by it ; and the absence of bodily 
feeling would deprive him at once of both the painful and the 
pleasurable feelings and sensations, which now, at times, make him 
crazy and drunk like a demigod with delight, or mad and wrathful 
like a demon from pain. 

2. Hence, if man were deprived of these senses altogether, he no 
longer could exist as a being belonging to the class called man; as 
he must be devoid of all the leading attributes constituting the 
nature of the human species. But, let it be distinctly kept in mind, 
what elsewhere (Chap, x, \ 16), has already transiently been stated, 
that even where these senses are all present in a sound and active 
condition, their action, does for its efficiency, not at all depend upon 
themselves, but entirely and totally upon the presence and attention 
of the understanding while the impression is performed upon them 
by phenomena. 



FACTS, ETC., RELATING TO THE ANALYSIS OF MIND. 157 

3. For when tlie observant attention of the understanding is not 
present, while a phenomenon impresses the eye, ear, touch, smell, 
taste, or feeling, there is no seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, 
tasting, or feeling at all performed ; but no sooner is the under- 
standing present with its attention, while any one of the senses is 
impressed, than these impressions, at once, become vivid, clear, 
distinct, and definite in proportion to the degree of interest taken 
in the special transaction and the inherent abilit} r of the under- 
standing for close and acute observation. But, whether the observa- 
tion be close and acute, or negligent and unobserving, there can be 
no question, that, if entirely absent, there is no impression possible ; 
for that impression only becomes an impression at the very moment 
when the understanding's attention translates it into a thought called 
a conception, reporting the same to reason as the result of the impres- 
sion made, — and by this process calling the whole mind's attention 
to the matter, and making the entire man conscious and cognizant 
of the transaction. 

4. It becomes, hence, clear that whatever of life or impressi- 
bility there is in the senses, or in any one thereof, at any time, it 
only is there, or acts for mental purposes, when brought there, or 
called up by the understanding itself, and never otherwise. But 
as soon as thus actually called up into action, is that action no 
sooner accomplished, in the shape of a definable impression, when 
the understanding so defines it by changing it into a clear thought, 
and in that shape, being a form already beyond reach of the senses, 
sends it up to the intellect, to be used for higher and ulterior 
purposes. 

5. Next, one great, tremendous fact, long known dimly, or rather 
conjectured, as such, but never duly appreciated and applied, is to be 
placed into the clear, unequivocal light and position that, by in- 
herent right, belong to its infinite tearing, importance and value. 
And as the due appreciation of this powerful fact, will exert an 
influence, not only upon the destiny of the human race, but by 
medium of it upon that of the universe itself : it is but fair that, 
when a matter of such transcendent import is announced, it ought 
to be done openly, in the presence, as it were, not only of the 
whole race of man, past, present, and to come, but in the sight and 
hearing of all beings whatever, capable of thought and thinking, be 



158 THE TEMPLE OP TRUTH. 

they angels inhabiting mansions of bliss and light, or demons 
doomed to dwell in misery and darkness ; challenging, in a manner, 
thereby, that mightily grand host, to contradict, if able, the great 
fact and truth thus proclaimed and enunciated, in a shape as clear 
and incontrovertible, as any single position whatever, in the whole 
field of man's science. That truth is : That man's invisible, think- 
ing mind, the very being which resides and presides in the body, 
giving it all the motive force and life therein found, is & force hidden 
to every thing below it, and knowing itself only by its own thought 
and mental action III 

6. For, as, «.) the eye of man does not see and comprehend ; 
b.) the ear not hear and understand ; c.) the tact not touch and 
ascertain ; d.) smell not flavor ; e.) taste not savor ; and, /.) the 
sense of bodily feeling not, in the remotest degree, perceive or even 
faintly surmise the existence and nature of thought and thinking : it is 
clear and incontrovertible, that, as these are all the channels of ex- 
terior knowledge, the sensual part of man has no knowledge of any 
soH of the nature of mind and intellect, but is only controlled there- 
by ; and that, therefore, the mind knows, and can know, its own 
existence and nature only by thought and intellectual action and con- 
sciousness, and its own forces alone by medium of development and 
action, and in no other manner whatsoever. 

7. Hence man even at present, namely that, which really is 
man, the thinking mind with its whole invisible apparatus (where- 
by it controls its body and through it the things in outer exist- 
ence), exists actually as a spiritual being, which knows nothing of 
its own nature but what it learns thereof by the development of its 
own intellect. 

8. For all knowledge whatever consists in thought, and thought 
can only be seen, entertained, appreciated and understood by the 
mind or intellect which thinkingly beholds it. Hence all men are 
governed by a force more or less unknown to them ; for every man, 
whether ignorant or wise, virtuous or wicked, is governed by the 
mind within him, and that mind can know itself only in the same 
way in which it knows all other things, namely, — it must, in its 
intellect, perceive by, and in, thoughts, that is, conceptions, the parts 
or forces of which it is composed. To obtain this knowledge, the 
intellect is compelled to analyze the mind's constituent forces in the 



FACTS, ETC., RELATING TO THE ANALYSIS OF MIND. 159 

same way, in which it must analyze other things, that is, examine 
them one by one, — one after another. 

9. The mind, then, having no other knowledge of any thing, 
except by the way of thought, it follows that all things coming 
before the mind can come there only in the shape of a thought. 
Hence, man can see either the individual forces, composing his 
mind or whole being, or that whole being itself, only by a thought 
representing each separate pari, or by one grand idea, combining all 
the separate parts into a unitary whole. Thus, then, all things that 
exist or may exist, must become spirits, that is, tJioughts, if they are 
to enter the arena of man's mind, to be looked at by his intellect 
Nay, in thus entering there, the size and shape of their bodies or 
beings is even democratized or equalized to one another to such 
extent, that the thought of the boundless universe, is not, so far 
as form and essence are concerned, one bit more of a thought, than 
that of the smallest pebble or atom ; the only difference being, that 
when the intellect proceeds to analyze their properties or attributes, 
it may accomplish that labor in one case, perhaps in a number of 
minutes or hours, whereas in the other, it may require half, the 
whole, or more than, man's lifetime. 

10. Yet the great fact does not even stop here but proceeds 
higher up. For even Deity itself, who made man as he is, made 
him thus, that God is beheld by man's intellect in no other way than 
in that of an idea ; and to know God : the intellect must analyze 
that idea into its constituent parts, and those parts are God's 
attributes or properties. For a being of whom man knows no 
attributes or properties, has no practical or real existence for him 
whatever. That God may be known as He is, and not merely 
believed to be, is the emphatic doctrine of the New Testament. 
For a.) in John xvii, 3, Christ himself ascribes to such true 
knowledge of the true God, connected with the knowledge of 
Christ's relation to God, the highest reward possible to be attached 
to any thing, not even in the shape of a reward, but as a real at- 
tribute inherent in that knowledge itself, for He unequivocally 
declares : " That such knowledge is eternal life itself." b.) In 1 Cor. 
ii, 10, Paul says : " TJie Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things 
of God." Searching by spirits is one and the same thing with 



160 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

•prying into, investigating, and. getting to know and understand a tiling, 
by looking at its component forces, by thought and intellect, c.) 
When John, the revelator, was lifted up by a celestial trance into 
a state of divine clairvoyance, his intellect saw the Divinity as it 
is, and in his Eev. chap, iv, verses 2 and 3, he describes it in the 
figurative language used throughout in that prophetic vision, as 
" One who sat on the throne, looking like a jasper and sardine stone, 
surrounded by a rainbow like an emerald." 

11. He who, by employing the proper meilwds, learns to know 
the nature, constituents, combination, and form of his own mental 
structure, will find no great difficulty in understanding the figures 
employed by the Apostle, as they correspond precisely with what 
we have heretofore stated of man's innermost construction. The 
" One " whom John saw on the throne, is the force corresponding 
to the whole unitary spiritual being of man, where intellect and 
soul form one mind ; the two looking like a jasper and sardine 
stone, are the mind split, or looked upon as split, into intellect and 
soul ; the rainbow surrounding both, of the hue of the emerald, 
is man's fancy, as we have stated, Chap, ix, $ 14, b. Finally, what 
John saw as, and calls, the throne, is in man his physical nature, 
which is the temple wherein man's spirit dwells, or the throne upon 
which it sits. The throne of God, upon which his infinite Spirit 
sits and dwells in a similar way, is the entire universe or visible 
creation, surrounded by the life-rainbow, and evergreen-emerald 
mantle of boundless space. 

12. To those who inquire of us, by what authority we thus use 
man's being to define that of God ? We, for the present, simply, 
first, refer them to Genesis, Chap, i, v. 27, where they may read : 
" So God created man in His own image;" from which it follows, 
with fatal necessity, that ; if man is the image of God, then God is 
the original of man, and tlie image must, on a measured scale, possess 
all the qualities and attributes of the original ; and the original, in turn, 
possess, in an unlimited degree, all the properties and attributes of its 
image. Next, we tell them, that reason knows of no higher 
essence, than the one constituting the nature of intellect, thereby 
proving it to belong, by its owd nature, to the substance of God, 
or the Supreme Being ; whereby God, and all other things, become 



SPECIAL ANALYSIS OF THE MIND, ETC. 161 

hwwable to the mind ; for intellect alone, and no force beneath it, 
can have knowledge of a thing, which having of " knowledge," means 
to understand "by thought" the mode and manner of its "being 
and existing." 



CHAPTER XX. 



SPECIAL ANALYSIS OF THE MIND, SHOWING ITS COMPONENT FORCES. 

1. It being now clearly enough, to the comprehension of even 
the dullest intellect, established, that thought is beyond the reach 
of the senses ; that it is the invisible mind in which all knowledge 
resides, which man may have of any thing whatever, and that 
hence that mind can have no other knowledge of itself and its 
component forces, than by thought and intellectual perception in con- 
sciousness. Now, the query presents itself to the mind, " How does 
it perceive its own forces — how distinguish them from, and- how define 
them, so as to recognize tJiem at all times, one from the other f" 

2. We answer for it : a.) When consciousness is called upon 
to express man's being within the smallest compass, so that the 
formula used truly covers all the phenomena of any sort, found 
connected with man, it simply says ; "lam." That, first grand, com- 
pound, all-embracing fact, we will, to distinctly specify it from all 
the others that are, as evolutions or emanations to follow out of it, 
denote with the letter i. b.) The query then proceeds: "How 
am I?" To which, as a true, only one answer can be returned, 
namely : " I am dualistic ; I have interior being, and exterior ex- 
istence." This latter exterior existence we will denote by B. In 
AB conjoined, we have thus the whole being of man combined 
into one unitary whole, as perceived in man's simple consciousness ; 
in A we have its upper, and in B its nether, pole. As we have, in 
Chap, iii and ix, laid it down as our conviction, that this double 
consciousness of man, is one and the same thing with fancy and 
imagination, as by us defined, since both conjoined inclose every 
force and perception within his being, into one grand, all-embracing 
synthesis : we hereby call the attention of all thinkers, capable of 



162 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

grappling with, the subject, and will thank them to use their test 
means and exertions to probe our position to its very bottom. For, 
if we see this matter aright, as we firmly think we do, man's invisi- 
ble mind, heretofore so long unknown and misunderstood, becomes 
at once as clear to itself and its own thought, as any other object of 
which it has any clear and reliable knowledge. For, if fancy is 
identical with mental consciousness and its perception of being, and 
imagination one and the same thing with sensual consciousness of 
exterior or finite existence, in which cases also, the heretofore un- 
located faculties of reminiscence, remembrance and memory, become at 
once blended with fancy and imagination : thereby six different 
forces, or what has been until now supposed, and by separate 
terms, denoted as such, will at once be melted into the single dualism 
of fancy and imagination. The latter inclosing man with all the 
concrete forms and things known to him, into a finite, and the 
former enfolding that finite cycle, together with the infinite empire 
of thought within its own vast compass, knowing no limits and 
bounds, except those from intellect and knowledge. 

3. After spiritual selfhood has thus, in consciousness, ascertained, 
a.) that it is ; b.) now it is; it then, c.) asks : "what am If" To 
this query, the answer returned, as the echo of the operation of all 
the forces within man, can be no other than : " I am an active be- 
ing. But which, kind of action is it (continues the query), that 
represents and embraces all the rest, and what is its most con- 
centratedly expressive formula f" To this query there is again but 
one true answer possible, to wit : " I think !" What does this 
formula include? It includes : " I meditate and I reason, I reflect 
and I observe, and hence I know ;" that I do this by a dualism in my 
thinking force, which, in its interior sphere, is termed reason, which 
we will denote with the letter C ; and, in its exterior domain, is 
named understanding (or common sense), which we will mark 
with the letter D, so that now our two letters, CD, when standing 
combined, represent the entire intellect in its two dualistic poles con- 
joined, while each letter separate represents, the first, its synthe- 
sizing reason, and the latter its analyzing understanding. 

4t. Having now got the intellect distinctly within our cycle, we 
may, instead of, as we until now have done, using it in our opera- 
tions, as it were, from behind the curtain, without explicitly giving 



SPECIAL ANALYSIS OF THE MIND, ETC. 1G3 

it the credit due for the proceeds ; now use it openly, and ask it to 
tell us how, and in what manner, the mind can be able to see and 
analyze itself, and all other things, as thus far we have, or rather it 
for us has, done ? To these queries the intellect replies : " Like 
there exist out of man, in nature, two objects, inseparably con- 
nected together, which, by being through their action the most useful 
and indispensable to man, of all else, as also by their influence upon 
his senses, overpower all others, and under the name of sun and 
moon, attract his attention more, and deservedly so, than any thing 
in nature ; so there are in man forces that differ from one another ; 
and I myself, man's intellect, may fitly, in my double capacity, be 
compared to sun and moon ; for, as reason, I am the solar light that 
illumes his boundless interior world ; while, as understanding, I 
am the moonlight, derived from the inner sun, by which he perceives 
the form, shape, and nature of the things composing nature and 
the finite existence that surrounds him ; whereby the light of clay 
and the light of night is all solar light; only, that the light by the 
moon, is the sun's light reflected from it as from a mirror ; so 
the light of the understanding, is reason's light, applied to the sepa- 
rate things in nature, as well as to the separate component parts or 
forces of all objects of knowledge whatever. And, as light is 
" sight," the light of sun and moon, if it were conscious of itself, 
would see the very objects and things, upon which it shines, by the 
very act of falling tliereupon ; so does my, the intellect's light, on 
whatever objects it falls, disclose to myself, to the living intellect, 
the exterior shape and inner nature and essence of all the things and 
objects upon which it legitimately alights ; no matter whether the 
originals of the objects of my vision or meditation are things out 
of myself, or are parts and portions of my own forces." 

5. As this answer of the intellect is satisfactory, inasmuch as it 
corresponds with the facts known to every reflecting mind, namely, 
that all truths and understood facts are seen by the mind, not only 
translucently through and through, but also clearly and distinctly as 
to their shape, size, form, and circumference ; we may now pro- 
ceed, and ask of the intellect : "What other leading forces, in addi- 
tion to those above denoted by the signs of AB and CD, it yet 
perceives in man, that remain to be named and defined ?" To 
which query the intellect replies : " That one more dualistic 
14 



164 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

force is to be named, already heretofore introduced by the name of 
soul, whose upper pole, termed in Chap, ix, and elsewhere, the 
sphere of sensibility, as the seat of man's highest joys, sufferings, 
enjoyments, and resolves, may be designated with the letter E, and 
whose nether pole, named the sphere of sensation, embracing all of 
man's impressions of pain and pleasure from things strictly apper- 
taining to the sensually accessible part of nature, may be denoted 
by the letter F, so that the two letters EF, when taken conjointly, 
represent the whole soul ; whereas, each letter singly, represents, as 
stated, E the upper, and F the nether pole of the soul." As both of 
these poles or spheres of the soul have, as far as elementary func- 
tions are concerned, been extensively analyzed and discussed, in 
Chapters xvi, xvii, and xviii, there is no need to further enlarge 
upon them in this present spot, but we will meet them again 
further on. 

6. Now, as the intellect maintains : that the three preceding 
dualistic forces, which it denoted by the letters AB, CD, and EF, 
represent all things, forces, and performances, found in man, using 
the organized body, as a machinery and dwelling-place, in common, 
for all their various operations : it remains to be seen, by the test 
of practical application, — whether the analysis performed by the in- 
tellect, is complete, consummate, and, as far as it pretends to extend, 
exhaustive. This test can easily be made. For, to analyze a liv- 
ing force, is almost the same operation as the taking apart of a 
complicated piece of machinery, putting the separated pieces 
thereof, within a given area of space, each into a separate spot, so 
as to give spectators the opportunity, to see the vast number and 
variety of parts, and learn the difference in form, shape, size, func- 
tion and performance of each, from all the rest. If the engineer or 
meclmnician, who, in the presence of beholders, performed the job of 
taking the machine apart, after he has gratified their curiosity, pro- 
ceeds under their eye, to re-compose the machine with equal ease, as 
he took it asunder, and at the end leaving not a piece behind, for 
which he could not discover its proper place, and then sets the 
instrument again into working order, as it was before commencing 
its analysis ; if the spectators see all this, they depart with the con- 
viction, that the work they have seen performing was done wholly, 
in a workman-like manner, and left no room for amendment. 



ON LOGIC, OR THE LAWS OF THE MIND. 165 

7. Well, let us see, how far application of the rule, will bring our 
case to a corresponding result, a.) In AB, we have being and exist- 
ence, with all things thereunto, as also especially appertaining to 
fancy and imagination, embracing all form and creative capacity, in 
every field of poetry, art, and performance belonging to either utility 
or the field of pure beauty and ideality, b.) In CD, we have all the 
forces of the intellect, with every machinery thereunto belonging, 
so that every operation and. object in anywise connected with 
thought and thinking, in the shape of mental processes, knowledge, 
science, ideas, conceptions, or thought in any form, either as ma- 
terial, or operative force, is therein embraced ; and including like- 
wise the whole machinery of the senses, to its very verge, where 
nature, by phenomena, and it, meet and touch, c.) In EF, finally 
we have all the psychical as well as physical phenomena which, 
in the shape of superior or inferior sensations and feelings, man ex- 
periences as joys or sufferings, pleasures or pains, as it were, within 
the very centre and vitals of his being, which we have termed soul, 
and denoted it as the real home of man's character and inherent 
qualities, residing therein in the shape of fixed habits of virtue or 
vice ; whereby the impulses, habits, motives, emotions, passions, 
resolves, and sensations of heaven as well as hell, may therein pre- 
vail, thus making man, when connecting with all the rest of his 
vast forces, an angel of heaven and messenger of delight, to his re- 
joicing, or a demon of the dismal deep and a dispenser of terror and 
woe to his terrified, fellow-man. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

ON LOGIC, OR THE LAWS GOVERNING THE INTELLECT IN SHAPING 
THE FORMS OF TRUTH. 

I. The mind knows its being in upper or interior, and its exist- 
ence in nether or exterior consciousness* in so absolute a manner 

* Although we have assumed, upon what we consider amply convincing reasons, that 
consciousness, in its two poles, is identical with fancy and imagination, we still con- 
tinue using the term consciousness, as more definitely expressing the mental actions 
here concerned, than any other term. 



166 THE TEMPLE OF TEUTH. 

that nothing of the sort, which is termed in the schools "a demon- 
stration," can either increase or decrease the amount of conviction, 
which man feels of the reality and truth of both. For, if the whole 
world around him would cry : " You imagine me merely to be, and 
see a universe with glittering stars, a glorious sun and a grand beauti- 
ful nature all around : but it is all a sliam, a deception like yourself, 
and neither of you, lias as much existence and reality, as a momen- 
tary dream." 

2. The man thus addressed, even if u solitary and alone," on his 
side, and the whole balance of his race, opposing him on the other, 
would, as we imagine him, neither lose his good humor, nor be 
anywise disconcerted. But would, with a smiling countenance, 
and " calm as a summer's morning," look into the face of the vast 
host, and simply reply to them somewhat in the following manner : 
"My friends, — when you speak to me of that which transpires 
within yourselves, and relates to your own state and mode of being, — 
I will respectfully listen to you : but on attempting to speak to me 
of myself, and that which is within me, I would beg leave kindly to 
remind you, that inasmuch, as not you are, but myself only am within 
myself : you seem to have entirely forgotten what Paul says, 
1 Cor., ii, 11, "For what man Jcnoiceth the things of man, save the 
spirit of 'man which is in him ?" as likewise, your own knowledge, 
that this is a matter of which you have no knowledge whatever, arid 
never will have any, until I shall myself see fit, to let you know 
something about it." 

3. This answer, being unanswerable, has the good effect to bring 
the parties to a rational discussion of, and search after, the law gov- 
erning the differences prevailing in the various views which human 
intellects form often of one and the same case, resulting in their 
agreement upon the two following propositions : a.) For that 
which man's mind knows by consciousness of itself, its forces and 
thoughts, or of nature from immediate impressions upon its own 
senses : it needs no assistance of exterior logic or foreign dialectics 
to corroborate or authenticate the grand facts in the case, as they 
are evidence for themselves of a sort, that looks upon all other 
evidence, volunteered to their aid, as a supernumerary intrusion, 
if not an impertinence, b.) Bat when the human mind, feeling the 
necessity of order, method, and system in its pursuit of knowledge, 



ON LOGIC, OR THE LAWS OP THE MIND. 167 

enters regularly into the process of accumulating thought, that is, 
collect the various facts and thoughts of individual consciousness, 
with its various observations of nature, and attempts to collate and 
harmonize them with its own and among one anotJier, for individual 
as well as the general benefit : then arises the need of having some 
medium whereby to reconcile or decide differences in conflicting 
cases. Such medium, acting as an umpire, to be of any true use 
and value, should be of an absolute nature, so that all men, willing 
or not, will have to acknowledge its rule and the validity of 
its decisions. 

4. From reflections like these, it becomes clear, that thinking 
minds, at an early age, must come to perceive, that the thing they 
needed and were in search of, was : a knowledge of the law con- 
trolling not only thought, thinking, and the mind's perception of 
the exterior phenomena of nature, but containing and expressing 
the very conditions underlying all being, thought, intellectual 
action and perception whatever, and showing the cause of the per- 
manency of endurance as well in the mode of being and existing, 
as in that of operating and acting, and the last accessible reasons 
why it ivas all thus, and not otherwise. 

5. That was the thing the mind saw the want of. The gratifi- 
cation of this want, to its full extent, would have been a consum- 
mate system of logic and dialectics, of which, the former relates to 
the form and modes of using, and the latter to the nature and essence 
of fact, l-nowledge, and truth. That language itself was the two- 
fold medium thus sought, was not known, at the time ; and, if 
known, would not have helped the case any, for in the same man- 
ner in which language is the product not of one individual human 
intellect, but of mankind's conjoint reason, so also will it require a 
co-operation of truth-loving intellects to fully develop language 
into that practically all-embracing logic and all-probing dialectics, 
which in theory are fully contained within it. 

6. To help themselves as well as they could and understand 
how, men of uncommon minds went early to work to frame such 
systems themselves. Thus Zeno, of Elea, in ancient Greece, 
already five hundred years before our era, is termed, " The Father 
of Logic and Dialectics." But Aristotle, about one hundred and 
sixteen years afterward, was the first who made the successful 



168 THE TEMPLE OP TRUTH. 

attempt to form logic by itself into something like a scientific 
shape. 

7. The system of Aristotle, considerably amended, is still much 
in use in the higher schools. But systems of that kind, being too 
abstruse and recondite, are not calculated to be used in every-day 
practical life, For, not only do we find that the vast majority of 
all men, educated at colleges, and there hearing lectures upon logic, 
no sooner leave the high scfwol for entering practical life, than they 
at once abandon all book logic, and rely, like the great mass of man- 
kind, upon the laws innate with reason and judgment ; but even 
gifted men, in all nations, eminent as thinkers and authors, openly 
repudiate logic as a separate science ; and some, like Hegel, under 
the name of logic, give us a treatise embracing the whole field of 
so-called metaphysics. This shows, not that such men see no need 
of logic, but merely, that they consider it present in language, in a 
mode resembling, in some degree, that in which we consider it. 

8. But, although thus not calculated for general use and appli- 
cation, such systems of logic, containing some of the deepest 
thoughts found in language, picked out and framed together into 
a more or less systematic shape, by several of the clearest and 
profoundest thinkers that ornament the race of man, have not 
been without some very good uses, namely : compelling men to 
deeper thought and reflection. For they who want to use them 
beneficially, must dive deep enough with their thought, until they 
fully understand them ; which constitutes a discipline for the intel- 
lect pre-eminently strengthening ; whereas those, who discard their 
rules altogether, are bound to penetrate to a depth in their own 
intellects, to veins of knowledge and perceptions, which entitles and 
induces them to look upon all foreign or exterior help in the 
premises, as superfluous and needless. 

9. Since the days of Zeno and Aristotle, the labors of various 
strong intellects, such as Bacon, Condillac, Lambert, Kant, 
and others, have contributed much to bring the shelfwork of logic 
nearer to a state of completion. The essence of that, what logic 
thereby has become, and can be regarded as to be, at the present time, 
may be considered as condensedly represented in the two following 
tables ; of which the first, marked A, exhibits the table of cate- 
gories, or general heads, or"suMMA genera,'' as forming the 



ON LOGIC, OR THE LAWS OP THE MIND. 



169 



absolute shelfwork, into the various localities of which, as a classi- 
fying apparatus, every object of thought is to be ranged and placed, 
according to its nature and qualities. The second, noted B, is a 
similar table of categories, embracing the various forms or kinds of 
judgment, based upon the first table, in one or other of which, the 
intellect of man is necessitated, to express its decisions, upon any- 
thing whatever, whenever exercising that function : 

A.) TABLE OF CATEGORIES. 



I.) OF QUANTITY. 


II.) OF QUALITY. 


III.) OF RELATION. 


IV.) OF MODALITY. 


a.) Unity. 


a.) Reality. 


a.) Of Inherence 
and Subsistence, 
{substantia et ac- 
cidens.) 

b.) Of Causality and 
Dependence, 
(cause and effect.) 

c.) Of Community, 
(alternation of ac- 
tion and reaction 
between the forces 
concerned.) 


a.) Possibility, Im- 
possibility. 


b.) Plurality, 
c.) Totality. 


b.) Negation. 
c.) Limitation. 


b.) Existence, Non- 
entity. 

e.) Necessity, Casu- 
alty, Accidentally. 



B.) TABLE OF JUDGMENTS. 



a.) Universal. 
b.) Particular, 
c.) Singular. 



II.) OF QUALITY. 



a.) Affirmative. 
b.) Negative, 
c.) Indefinite. 



III.) OF RELATION. 



a.) Categorical. 
b.) Hypothetical, 
c.) Disjunctive. 



IV.) OF MODALITY. 

a.) Problematical. 
b.) Assertorial. 
c.) Apodictical. 



10. In Chap, viii, on Language, we conclude its closing paragraph 
with affirming and repeating it in various places, that, language is 
not only a medium of communicating thought, but also, at the 
same time , the grandest system of logic devised by the intellect of 
eternal reason itself, whereby thought may be communicated uner- 
ringly, from mind to mind, if its laws are duly heeded and ob- 
served. In looking at the above tables, it will at once strike any 
reflecting mind, that they contain a positive demonstration of the 
truth of our assertion, that language is or contains a perfect system 
of logic ; for, not only the captions or headnames of every category 
in both the tables, but likewise all the words and the ideas they 
represent, contained in any one of the twenty-four subdivisions of 
the doubled four categories above, belong, in the first instance, to 
language, and are familiar to it ; in the next we have met with 
all OF them, in our Analysis of the Senses, particularly in that 



170 THE TEMPLE OP TRUTH. 

of Sight, with the most of them in an expressed, and with the 
remaining few, in an implied shape ; and, lastly, this mental shelf- 
work is made use of every day, hour, and moment, in practical 
life, by all men who never studied logic at the school, in one way or 
other, whenever they interchange thoughts with one another. And 
thousands of them do use this intellectual machinery as correctly, 
who never heard of, or cared about, the construction of a syllogism, 
as some of those whose occupation it is to teach logic as a science 
to others. For wherever and whenever a man succeeds to commu- 
nicate his own thought, in the precise shape and form in which he 
has got it in his own, to the mind of any other man, he has per- 
formed a feat beyond which no logic can go, as there is no need for 
any thing beyond this, so far as mere transfer of thought is con- 
cerned. Whoever is thus capable to make himself understood, by 
all people that have sense, upon any matter not entirely foreign to 
their sphere of knowledge, may be counted an accomplished logician, 
no matter whether he ever paid any attention to the study of logic 
or not. 

11. What we, therefore, want to see, and which has been per- 
ceptibly enough, the drift of all we have said and done in the 
j)receding pages, is not the abandonment of the study of logic, but 
to draw it out from its student's secluded corners, into the broad 
glare of daylight and every-day life, teaching men practically the 
application of its closely searching methods ; its patient, all-examin- 
ing care, upon all their private and public concerns, and thereby 
enabling them everywhere to discover what is true or false, good or 
evil, in all cases, and thus capacitate them to see and pursue that 
better path that leads to ever-increasing good. Thereby men be- 
come possessed of correct knowledge and truth, in which consist the 
materiel of wisdom. If to this they add the disposition to employ 
both in the service and to the ends of goodness : they therein have 
the material of virtue, whereby it, as well as wisdom, becomes the 
active, conjoint ruling force within the man. Now, if you place 
two men thus disposed together, you may rely that all the lan- 
guage which they employ for interchanging their thoughts between 
each other, is strictly logical in its scope and effect, even if at times, 
it might for a moment, be defective in form ; for they will, in every 
instance, not fail to convey the precise spirit of their thought 



ON LOGIC, OR THE LAWS OF THE MIND. 171 

mutually to one another, as it exists in their own intellects. That is 
the office and object of language as well as logic, and thus, again, 
their common aim proves them both to be in essence — one. 

12. As there may be some of our readers, who might be unable, 
to understand the meaning and use of these tables, it is proper to 
give the following brief explanation. To do sounderstandingly, we 
must begin with category No. iv, termed Modality, in the first table 
marked A. 

a.) " To be, or not to he," is everywhere the first and grand ques- 
tion. The category labeled modality, based upon and expressive of 
the highest laws of the intellect, informs us that being has three 
grades, which it names : " Possibility, existence, necessity," terming 
their opposites, " Impossibility, non-entity, casualty." Hence there 
must be objects known to, or coming before, man, of which he is 
forced to say, that their being or existence, belongs in degree of 
certainty, to one or the other of these classes. Thus he may say : 
Space is, or exists, by necessity, for no man can remove it, even in 
thought. Nature has existence, as all the senses of all men attest, 
and no voice speaks to the contrary. That the planets and stars 
may be inhabited, analogously to our earth, is, at least, & possibility. 
The removal of space may be termed an impossibility, or a thing 
that never can become actual. Non-entity, being the absence of 
existence, applies to things or beings that are not yet, but pos- 
sibly may, in the future, enter existence or being. Casualty or 
accidentally is that state of which neither causes nor effects are 
foreknown, or the causes of certain effects which are not understood 
and perceived. 

b.) By the preceding category, we now know, that there is being 
and existence of sundry grades. Now the query arises : WJio and 
ivhat is and exists thus, and to which grade does his, her, or its being 
or existence belong ? This question is answered, one way or other, 
by every passage spoken by man ; for every one such passage con- 
tains, as its leading subject, the one of quantity, marked category i ; 
for he speaks either of one man or thing, or of several, or more, or 
of all, which is meant by unity, plurality, or totality, the terms used 
in the category. 

c.) Having thus got being from the category of modality, and its 
individual or compound form from the category of quantity ; each 
15 



172 THE TEMPLE OF TEUTH. 

such form of being has, in a positive or negative manner, something 
or other attached to it, belonging as a quality of being or existence 
to category ii, indicating also its place upon the positive or negative 
side in category iv. 

d.) Next, each subject thus brought on the platform of being, has 
a threefold manner of connection with all other things, which is 
expressed under the caption of relation, in category iii. For, in the 
first instance, every being or thing under discussion, has inherent 
qualities and forces, which form a part of itself. Next, it may have 
other qualities, which it can part with, without any change in its 
real being. Thus, any faculty required in a man's sound mind, 
must be said to constitute an inherent quality of his full humanity ; 
while the circumstance that he is either learned or unlearned, large 
or small, strong or weak, healthy or sickly, can be present or absent 
without producing any essential change in the man's nature as a 
human being. This is what is meant by inherent or subsistent rela- 
tion, in a, category iii. Next, all things and beings are connected 
with others by the law of causality, being the cause or effect, the 
source or stream, the principal or agent, the parent or child, of one 
thing or being, or another, as denoted in let. b, category iii. Finally, 
as the forces and things that are and exist, have a constant com- 
merce and intercourse more or less with one another, on a scale 
more Or less extensive Or limited : the alternation in their action 
with and upon One another is expressed in this category by the 
term community. 

13. After the first table,' A, has thils furnished the primary forms 
and conditions of be'ing and existence^ with beings, existences, 
their qualities, forces and relations as implied in its categories : 
then comes the intellect through spoken speech or written language 
of man, and narrates in the various fOrrils of judgment, as exhibited 
in table B, the variegated modes of action Of these forces,- in such 
shape as they come under its notice. 

a.) Here, then, we have again, as before, twelve different forms, 
in one of which any proposition whatever, which the mind can 
form upon any thing, must be expressed. Corrimencing as before 
with category iv, modality, its last subdivisions, marked c, are termed 
apodictical, or incontrovertible, which means a proposition affirming 
or denying upon reasons resting upon logical necessity, b.) When 



ON LOGIC, OB THE LAWS OF THE MIND. 173 

based upon logical reality, such proposition is called assertorial. a.) 
When based upon logical possibility, is termed problematical 

b.) Now let it be kept in mind, that all propositions whatever, 
either in a positive or negative form, always belong to one or the 
other of the preceding three classes, and take, in turn, one feature 
or other, from each one of the remaining three categories. Thus 
in categ. i, of quantity, the proposition in a, called universal, is one, 
which affirms or denies the predicate of the whole of the subject ; 
b, particular or partial, it is, when affirming or denying the same of 
only a portion or part thereof ; and c, singular, it is called, when its 
affirmation or denial of the predicate is restricted to an individual 
or single part of the whole. 

c.) The second category, labeled quality, terms a proposition 
a.) affirmative, when asserting the agreement of the predicate with 
the subject ; it calls it, b.) negative, when denying the same ; and 
terms it, c.) indefinite, when their affirmation or denial is expressly 
or impliedly restrictive. 

A.) In the third, the category of relation, a proposition is called 
a.) categorical, when absolutely affirming or denying a predicate of a 
subject ; b.) hypothetical, it is termed, when asserting or denying, 
not absolutely, but under an hypothesis, implying connection with a 
specified conjunction, c.) Disjunctive finally, is a proposition, con- 
sisting of two or more categoricals, stated in such form, as to em- 
brace the alternative, that one or the other thereof, must be true. 

14. Pure or intellectual logic, in conformity with the modes of 
being and action inherent in the mind, furnishes the forms neces- 
sary for discovering formal truth, and therewith, also, the three 
highest laws of thinking, from which it educes and evolves the 
whole process of forming conceptions, judgments, and syllogisms, 
with the forms connected with their practical application, partly 
adduced and explained in the preceding paragraphs of this chapter. 
These three highest laws of thinking, containing the meter for all 
formal truth, are indicated in categ. iv, table a, and are termed : 

a.) The law of logical possibility. Logically possible, that is, 
thinkable, is that, which admits of being united within the same 
consciousness, whereby, the object of thought thus entertained, 
shows the possession of criteria harmonizing with the primary law 
of the intellect. Expressed negatively, it states : That which can 



174 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

not be conjoined within one consciousness, and is hence repugnant 
to the original form of the mind, is not thinkable. For this reasoD, 
this proposition, on account of its negative validity, is termed by the 
schools : the proposition of contradiction (principium contradictionis). 
For example : what is eternal is perishable, is logically not think- 
able, inasmuch as the contradictory predicates, eternal and perishable, 
can not be reconciled within one consciousness. But the whole 
world of poetry, is logically thinkable, hence possible. 

1).) The law of logical reality. The thoughts, which we accept as 
true, must have a subjective foundation within the original form 
of our intellectual being, as a sufficient reason for us thus to accept 
them. Logically real is therefore that object, the reason of which, 
why it is thought, is to be found in the relation of the thinking 
mind, to that object of thought. Thus the ideas of free-agency, 
morality, immortality, etc., possess logical reality for man. Under 
this head belongs the proposition : Every effect must have its cause, 
etc. This law of thinking, which first was lifted into general valid- 
ity, by Leibnitz, was called by the schools, the proposition of a suffi- 
cient cause (principium rationis sufficientis), and placed by them, 
before Kant, at the door of so called metaphysics. Kant, with 
good reasons, turned it over into the field of logic ; for logical reality 
and real or material actuality, differ ; as the latter is "an accordance 
of ihouglit with the objects thereof" 

c.) The law of logical necessity. Logically necessary, is that, which, 
in accordance with the original laws of thinking, must be ascribed 
exclusively to the thought before the mind, that is, to the exclusion 
of every thing contrary. (For example : twice two are four.) To 
this law appertains all mathematical certainty. This law of think- 
ing has been added to the two former, by the adherents of the 
"critical school of philosophy." They call it, in the schools : "the 
proposition excluding a third ;" (principium exclusi tertii), from the 
formula : " To every thought entertained by the mind, must, of two 
contradictory criteria, of necessity, belong one tliereof." 

15. Based upon these three cardinal laws of thought, practical 
logic has, beside what has already been stated, settled upon the 
following, as, of the remaining, its most material points and defini- 
tions : a.) Whenever the intellect of man is actively engaged with 
any object, it is more or less clearly conscious of a certain process 



ON LOGIC, OR THE LAWS OF THE MIND. 175 

taking place within it, which, is the inner act of reasoning. This 
process is in all main features essentially alike, no matter whatever 
the subject (as already stated in Chap, vi, § 12, and elsewhere), 
whether belonging to every-day life, nature, mind, science, or any 
thing else. Logic, hence, wants to show the way, how reasoning 
in exterior forms is to be conducted, b.) under its guidance, reason- 
ing proceeds, through what it calls, forming an argument, which 
consists of three distinct propositions, of which it terms the first : 
the major ; the second : the minor ; and the third : the conclusion. 
If thus stating an argument regularly in its full shape : it is termed 
a syllogism, c.) Of these three propositions of a syllogism, each 
proposition, being "a judgment expressed in words," consists of two 
terms ; the one which is spoken of, is named the subject ; the 
matter so spoken thereof, is called the predicate. Thus, subject and 
predicate are called the terms or extremes, since they are joined in 
the middle by the copula, indicating the act of judgment, — because 
by it the predicate asserted of the subject, is affirmed or denied. 
The form of the copula can only be : is or is not ; which terms 
denote either simple affirmation or denial of the subject's predicate. 
The auxiliary verb "to be," termed by logic, u ihe substantive verb," 
is the only verb properly recognized or used by logic, — as all other 
verbs are only modifications of it. 

16. The operations or states of the mind, concerned in an argu- 
ment are three : apprehension, judgment, and reasoning or discourse. 

a.) Apprehension , every notion or conception is called formed 
from sensual or mental impressions by the understanding. 

b.) Judgment, is the comparing of two notions, conceptions, 
thoughts, or ideas in the mind, which constitute objects of appre- 
hension, whether simple or compound, — and deciding that they 
agree or disagree with each other, — which means, that one thereof 
does or does not belong to the other, resulting from the first main 
law ($ 14, let. a). Judgment, hence, is either affirmative or negative. 

c.) Reasoning or discoursing, is the act of educing from certain 
judgments, termed premises, — another founded thereon, or, as the 
conclusion, or joint result of both, contained therein. In an argument 
which is properly constructed in matter and form, any one who 
admits its premises, is forced to admit the conclusion. 

17. And as there can be no reasoning between the parties, unless 



176 THE TEMPLE OP TKTTTH. 

they understand each other perfectly, which can only be, when 
they combine one and the same thought with the terms used, the 
propositions made, and the arguments stated : in which case, also, 
terms are prevented from being indistinct, propositions from being 
false, and arguments inconclusive : it is the proper office and function 
of logic to attend to all this, by forcing the parties to a strict use of 
language. In this capacity, logic may be said: "to he the art of 
properly employing language in the processes of reasoning, and of de- 
tecting the true argument from the counterfeited imitations thereof." 
For, sound reasoning, when duly expressed, denotes already by 
outward form, its inherent correctness. 

18. a.) Every act of reasoning is classification, whereby the subject 
adjudicated is distributed, either into one of the classes already com- 
monly known, or creating a new class for it. b.) Classes are formed 
by generalization, which consists in abstracting that notion or attri- 
bute from all the separate individuals having resemblances, in which 
they all agree, making it the criterion of the class. 

19. In regard to classes, there prevails a fixed degree of order, 
based upon the principles of sub-, co-, and super-ordination ; where- 
by we are enabled either to ascend from a lower to a higher, or 
descend from the latter to a lower class, a.) the highest of all classes 
is called " the highest genus " (genus summum), embracing all others 
below, or within it, and its individual objects are termed : u thing, 
something" (ens), which is the most comprehensive class "thinkable," 
to which the great, good, and sainted, mystic Taulerus, in a fit of 
devout admiration, even referred Deity itself, when saying, in his 
treatise on " Spiritual Poverty :" "the most wonderful and curious 
of all tilings is God !" b.) Next come the classes contained in this 
highest, of which there are, by the name of genus, a large number, 
co-existing as genera alongside of one auother, and often divided 
into proximate and remote genera, c.) The smaller classes existing 
within the compass of a genus, are termed species or hind, and these 
often divide themselves again into smaller cycles, called : varieties, 
or sorts, made up of single individuals. Hence, assembled individ- 
uals form the variety : the various varieties constitute the species ; 
the various species make up the genus, and the whole of the genera 
constitute the "genus summum." 

20. a.) Thus it will be perceived that every word in language, 



ON LOGIC, OR THE LAWS OF THE MIND. 177 

denotes the existence of this universal classification, as it belongs at 
one and the same time to a certain variety of a species ; then with 
the species to the genus, and with its to the highest genus. And 
this is, therefore, the case with all things, b.) Hence it is the office 
and object of logic to assist us in finding the true class to which a 
thing, under the contingency of its occurrence, really belongs. If 
reasoning is capable of accomplishing this, its main object, it realizes 
its full purpose ; which, however, under the circumstances as yet 
generally prevailing in the world, is accomplished only in the smallest 
number of cases, from absence of reliable knowledge. 

21. As a syllogism is an argument, presented in a regular logical 
form, it should be " An argument so expressed, that the conclusiveness of 
it is manifest from tJie mere form of expression," without looking at 
the meaning of the terms. For example : " Every A is Z ; B is J, 
hence it is also Z." Whatever signs or terms are employed in an 
argument like this, which may serve as the pattern of a shape to 
which all arguments can be reduced, the consequences are inevitable. 
By a close examination, all arguments will be found to be syllogistic, 
no matter how irregular the form may be in which they appear. 

22. When generalization has formed a class, be it one of facts, 
truths, things, or beings, the rule and law thereof is, that, whatever 
may, by affirmation or denial, be predicated of such class, applies 
to any thing or being therein comprehended. (This is the famous 
proposition generalized already by Aristotle, under the title, " de 
omni et nullo," being valid of all or none.) 

23. The preceding will suffice for what is necessary to be said 
about logic for the present time ; inasmuch as we shall have to 
recur to the subject at some future day, in another place. Before, 
however, we leave the subject, we have, a.) First, to note down 
one exceedingly curious fact connected with its history, which, 
after a while, people will hardly be able to believe. This is, 
namely, the remarkable fact that, for a long time, the following 
position was in reality one of the laws or rules, in all the systems 
of logic taught, not partially but generally, at the high schools in 
the various countries of Christendom ; and is, perhaps, in some of 
them retained yet to this very day, to wit : " There are tilings that 
are true in the abstract but not in the concrete ;" or, in plain language, 
there are things which are true when beheld as tlwugU, by tJie mind, but 



178 THE TEMPLE QP TRUTH. 

proving themselves untrue, as soon as tried to be applied in exterior 
practice. The famous original of this remarkable so-called logical 
axiom, reads : " quidquid est verum in abstracto, sed non verum in con- 
creto. ,i b.) Next, we must show the difference between logic and 
dialectics, as both have been and still very often are confounded 
with one another ; thus their difference is this : Logic is superin- 
tendent and lawgiver over the forms in which truth is to appear ; 
whereas Dialectics perform the same office toward the matter or sub- 
stance of truth itself ; acting, as it were, like a touchstone, by which 
the real gold of truth is unerringly discriminated from all spurious 
imitations thereof. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

ON DIALECTICS, OR THE CRITERION OF THE SUBSTANCE AND 
ESSENCE OP TRUTH. 

1. Hitherto there never yet has existed any thing like a system 
of reliable dialectics in this world. For such system becomes only a 
realizable possibility ; where and after, all the main sources of human 
knowledge have become distinctly known and recognized in number 
and substance, and their relation to one another clearly ascertained 
and understood ; which, as presently will be shown, never heretofore 
has been the case. For, if there had ever been such a criterion on 
earth, the so-called world of learning and science, could not have 
been led into adopting the monstrous absurdity into their systems 
of logic, as a law of thought ; which we have just mentioned above, 
that " certain things could be true in tliought, but untrue when attempted 
to be put into practice.^ 

2. The condition of human affairs, as shown us by history, 
geography, and daily observation, if calmly surveyed, presents, 
however, not only the causes of such and the like absurdities, but 
therein, also, in a considerable measure, the apologies for the same. 
For, whatever is done, thought, perceived or executed, by the whole 
race of man ; every single part thereof is, after all, only in reality 
performed in each case, by one single human mind, who is charged 



ON DIALECTICS, THE TOUCHSTONE, ETC., OF TRUTH. 179 

for the time with the thinking required for its actualization. Such an 
individual mind, it therefore also was, which, from causes which we 
shall discuss in a coming chapter, found himself induced, to intro- 
duce the above position into logic, to help himself and those for 
whom he spoke, out of a pinching dilemma, from which they per- 
ceived no other outlet. 

3. For, a.) when seeing the human world split into innumerable 
political and religious divisions, and perceiving even the men ex- 
clusively devoting themselves to science, and the ostensible search 
after truth, no less split into a number of antagonistic schools or phi- 
losophical sects, all of which combat one another, not seldom with 
acrimonious vehemence : the mind not deep enough to see to the 
bottom of the quarrel, must come to the sudden and wholesale con- 
clusion, that, inasmuch as these various parties oppose each other's 
entire system, they thereby also prove that there is no truth upon 
which all of them agree, b.) Next, when the young, vigorous, 
in corrupted youth, starts : "With a thousand masts of hope, into life's 
unmeasured ocean, returning, silently and alone, with hoary head, in 
the saved skiff into port,"* he discovers that the cause of his blighted 
ideals and disappointed hopes, was not alone in his own weakness, 
ignorance, or inconsistency, but that the fickleness, dishonesty, 
hypocrisy and treachery, of many men, with whom he came into 
contact, and had to act, was fully as much the cause of his painful 
failures, as any neglect or omission on his own side. Hence, the 
pain under which he smarts, induces him to become distrustful of 
all men, although he well enough knows, that there are men whose 
conduct he himself can approve of, laud, praise, and, in a few 
cases, even admire to the degree of worship, c.) The disunion 
thus discovered in human knowledge, and the absence of reliability 
upon the words, motives, and actions of the larger number of men, 
produce a highly unpleasant and painful impression upon the mind 
of man, whereby he not seldom forgets, that although thus often 
deceived by his fellow-man, there is yet all around him an un- 
speakably grand universe, a beautiful glorious nature, who never 
deceive, and are as reliable, or even more so, than his well-proved 
timepiece, as long as it is in a working condition to obey na- 
ture's laws. 

* Schiller. 



180 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

4. a.) In this condition of mind, man is unfit to discover the error 
in his own reasoning. For, if he were able to see what men can 
and must know, and wJiat not, and thereby to sift the true convictions 
of men who, by their outward attitude, appear almost at sword's 
point, he would find that the points, upon which all these very 
men, notwithstanding their apparent disagreements, substantially 
agree, are more than ten times as numerous, as tliose upon which 
they disagree; and that these latter are, in fact, not matters of 
knowledge but of mere opinion, not yet matured into the form of 
accepted scientific knowledge, b.) But this true state of the case 
not being known, a riding opinion, more or less general, obtains cur- 
rency among a large number of thinking men, akin to that sad state 
of bottomless doubting, which, eighteen hundred and some years 
ago, induced Pilate, John xviii, 38, hurriedly to ask Jesus the 
question : " What is truth f" without expecting or awaiting an 
answer, that in anywise should be capable of curing his mental 
malady. In a similar manner, many of these men of our day, 
say : " There is no exterior or objective truth, valid for all men, but 
only individual conviction, depending upon tlie private judgment of 
every single man." 

5. Well, this assertion is merely that very individual judgment 
of theirs, upon this general case ; hence, by their own dictum, they 
have no authority to make any such, if even it had a foundation in 
fact. But, such not being the case, the assertion is only founded 
in ignorance, and pronounced with inconsiderate rashness and igno- 
rant presumption. For no man who takes the trouble of examining 
the primary foundations, lying at the bottom of all human knowl- 
edge, of every kind, and upon which every child of man is forever 
alike dependent, as we have done in the preceding pages, can 
henceforth, for a moment, again doubt the absolute existence of 
objective truth all around man, no matter whether properly under- 
stood and acknowledged or not. 

6. a.) But, separate and apart from the men of the above sort, 
whose bodies, souls, and intellects have all, more or less, been 
wounded in life's battle; there always have been, almost every- 
where, a few favored individuals, gifted with profound thought and 
acute observation ; living a sort of retired life, in a happy solitude, 
where, designedly and exclusively pursuing the study of science 



ON DIALECTICS, TIIE TOUCHSTONE, ETC., OF TRUTH. 181 

and truth, the philosophical equanimity of their temper, and the 
clearness of their judgment's vision, could not be disturbed by the 
surges of life's ocean, as these could not penetrate into their well- 
sheltered cove. &.) Now, the wonder is, that whenever the asser- 
tion above noted, respecting elective truth, together with the thought 
of the diversity of human views in general, reached the ear or intel- 
lect of such profound thinkers, it never struck their minds to enter 
into a close examination of such questions as the following : 1.) 
What is it, that mankind agree upon, differ about, and in common 
really do, and can, know ? Or, 2.) What and which are the sources, 
from which all, that men really know, and may know, has been 
derived, and on what, and why, do they differ f 

7. If these, which surely are, questions of the highest importance, 
to all men, have occurred to reflecting minds ; it is at least certain 
that they never have been satisfactorily answered. For, if once 
thus answered, the consequences of such categorical answer, must 
be unutterably glorious, for the bettering of man's destiny on earth ; 
for the correct answer to these queries contains the quintessence of 
the system of dialectics of which we stand in need ; as it forms the 
touchstone for probing the inner nature and truth in all things. We 
will, therefore, furnish the necessary answer to these important 
queries, and therein lay the foundation and groundwork of the 
dialectics so urgently needed. 

8. The ineffable being which ubiquitously fills every point in 
infinite space, having no beginning and ending, and sustaining the 
existence of the grand order visibly prevailing throughout the 
universe : has spoken, and is speaking to man, in and through three 
distinct cardinal voices, none more nor less, each one of which being 
actually a revelation, or manifestation, of God to man, and the three 
constituting conjointly, the only, exclusive, and all-embracing sources 
of knowledge which man ever had, can, and ever will have : These 
sources or revelations of God's truth to man, are called : a,) Na- 
ture, b.) Keason, and c.) Religion, forming a trinal disclosure of 
the being and attributes of the infinite author. of all things, and 
man's relation to God, nature, and his neighbor. 

9. a.) Nature, God's throne and footstool, is the revelation of 
God's boundless power and wealth, and a perpetual continuation and 
exhibition, before man's open eyes, of his unlimited creative capacity. 



182 THE TEMPLE OP TRUTH. 

b.) Reason, : compelled by the laws of intellect to think and aspire in 
all main things, alike in all men, from him that first trod the earth 
to the last : is a revelation of God's wisdom, — designed to rule, gov- 
ern and use the vast powers of nature, according to the eternal de- 
sign creatively impregnated into both nature and intellect c.) Re- 
ligion, is the revelation of God's aim, object, purpose and design, to 
and for which nature was created, and reason given to man to rule 
and control it. 

10. Now, it devolves upon us to define the nature of each one 
of these threefold revelations, so that there is no confounding of each 
other's domain : a.) To nature belongs the whole of that mighty 
universe, which, surrounding man on all sides, is revealed to him 
by the action of his six senses, as we have seen in their preceding 
analyzation. Hence, the body of man itself is a portion of this 
very nature, b.) The revelation of Reason is not merely what the 
Reason of one man perceives by thought as present in itself, in 
nature, in other men, and in the first cause ; but what the assembled 
reason of the countless human beings, from the first to the last man 
born on earth (if ever there is a last), has thus far discovered in all 
the past, and shall yet therein perceive in all the coming future. 
c.) The revelation of Religion, being a relation of the zohole race 
and all its separate members to that ineffable Cause, which to every 
one is the tender parent and nearest friend : must find its represent- 
ing center in a paramount religious truth, that is acJcnoivledged at one 
and the same time, as such by all manlcind, all nature, and all rea- 
son. What, where, and which this particular paramount truth is, 
we shall in the next chapter distinctly point out and specify. 

11. a.) All the knowledge found in the possession of man, and all 
he will ever be able to acquire, did, does, and will flow from one or 
the other or all of this trinal revelation of Qod to man. That knowl- 
edge flows or flowed either from a, or b, or c, separately, from a 
and b, or a and c, or b and c, combined, or conjointly from a, b, and 
c, united. As each branch of this threefold Revelation, emanates 
equally from the same God : each must necessarily, if divinely 
understood (that is, interpreted and understood, as its giver wishes 
it to be), give to man nothing but truth. For, since God found it 
expedient to give man this revelation in such threefold form, the 
giving in the form of this precise number, must have appeared 



ON DIALECTICS, THE TOUCHSTONE, ETC., OF TRUTH. 183 

to God's understanding as indispensably necessary, as the condition 
of man made it necessary to receive it in this threefold shape and no 
oilier, b.) That such a necessity existed, still exists, and will forever 
continue to exist, a single glance at the mutual and permanent rela- 
tion of these three branches of revelation to and among each other, 
will suffice to show. For remove, for instance, nature, as the bot- 
tom upon which man stands and exists : Iww and where could he 
make use of, and apply reason or, revealed religion ? Or let nature 
stand, and take away reason : of what, and for whose use is and 
remain revealed religion, and nature ? Or, let nature and reason stand, 
and take away revealed religion, leaving reason groping in the dark 
to understand itself and the sphinx of nature : where will nature 
and reason be ? c.) They will be precisely in the horrifying state of 
cliaos, and blood-curdling terrors, in which, with the shortliving 
exceptions of brief, locally-confined periods of single bright spots in 
human history, they always have been, and still are, in all the main 
points of practice up to the present day. d.) For, the time is at 
hand, when, it will be clearly understood, that revealed religion, up to 
this hour, has, in this world, never yet had fair play ; that it has 
been unjustly dealt with, by its own pretended friends, as well as by 
its ill-informed, so-called, avowed opponents ; that, in place oHtself its 
mere shadow was permitted to have some theoretical influence among 
men. For, paramount as the religious principle is, in all men, when 
duly reached : had mankind known the heaven extant in revealed 
religion, all human suffering, and every thing hellish, would long 
have disappeared from the face of the earth, and a blooming paradise 
of universal happiness, virtue and goodness would now with solar 
brightness fill its dismal place. 

12. The main reason and essential cause why nature, reason, and 
revealed religion, have been unable to yield man all the great bless- 
ings, which each of them conceal in their unfathomed bosom, is sim- 
ply because man has, until now, not found out the great secret how duly 
to use them. Instead of using them at all times, and upon all occa- 
sions, conjointly to obtain their unanimous verdict upon one and the 
same question, as God wants and enjoins him to do : he separates 
and pits them one against the other, so as to place them into actual 
antagonism. Now, to understand these three eternal voices un- 
erringly, it requires, in all cases of any import, their conjoint 



184 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

co-operation, a.) Nature can never be understood, without the light 
of reason and religion; of reason : how to comprehend and control it ; 
and of religion : to show the aim and end of such control, b.) To 
understand and use the wisdom and light of reason : it requires 
the co-operation of nature and religion ; nature must furnish reason 
the ground to stand upon, the field to work in, and the power and 
tools to work with ; while religion must enlighten reason to find what 
it really needs and never yet has been able to discover by its own 
unaided light, c.) Religion, finally, needs nature and reason no less, 
than they each need it, to duly understand its mystic speech, dis- 
cover its boundless treasures of infinite value, and enable it to make 
the whole of them available for the use and benefit of man. 

13. Now, instead of applying themselves to acquiring a full 
knowledge of the truth, in each one of these equally eternal sources 
of divine knowledge, for the purpose of using them conjointly and 
harmoniously to mutual interpretation and application ; one set of 
men apply themselves one-sidedly and exclusively to a superficial 
investigation of the surface of nature ; and, without knowing any 
thing thereof, look upon reason as a mere appendage to nature, and 
upon religion as not much more than a dreamed nonentity. Others, 
look upon reason as self-sufficient for its and all of man's purposes, 
making themselves merely surfacially acquainted with the light of 
their reason, as also inspecting but a few small patches of nature's 
vast domain ; and confounding revealed religion with sectarian abuse 
thereof, imagine themselves to have a sufficiency of truth, by reason's 
light within them ; and, therefore, maintain that nature gives but 
little and a dim, and religion only an obscure and dubious, light. 
And, finally, come the great host of larger and smaller religious 
sects and churches, many of whom look upon nature with a shy 
and squinting eye, as if it did not really come from God, but from 
some other undefined, ungodly source ; while they distrust, yet use, 
reason, but only so far as to confirm themselves in the creed, as their 
ancestors, some hundreds of years ago, laid it down as their under- 
standing of what religion is, or they thought it to be, at that time ; 
each sect, however, stopping somewhere midway to copy after some 
pattern ; but none going up to the church of the primitive Chris- 
tians, to take its copy from it, as the fountain head. 

14. a.) These three main parties, with their various subdivisions 



ON DIALECTICS, THE TOUCHSTONE, ETC., OF TRUTH 185 

and varieties, are now, and have been, since many long, long years, 
engaged in open and secret feuds with one another, whereby all of 
them villify, abase, slander, and alternately fight against, either 
nature and reason, nature and religion, or religion and reason, just as 
they happen to be blind and unthinking worshipers of eyeless 
fanaticism, imagining self-deluding reason, or the outer shell of 
crude nature, b.) Now, none of these three parties can know 
either nature, reason, or religion, as they in reality are ; because 
each one of these, as above shown, can only be properly understood, 
by the assistance and co-operation of the other two. Hence these 
men do not know the love and peace of their God, as they harbor 
hate and ill-will, and practice persecution toward one another, c.) 
And here lies the secret of the world's whole trouble. For the 
heroic soul of the great Plato, in its divine love of truth, without 
the assistance of that superior religious light, which our churches 
and times possess, without duly using it, already from the innate 
honesty of a true heart, declared, that : " Man should follow truth 
wherever it leads I"* But the men attached to sectarian views of 
nature, reason, or religion, do not know what real truth is ; and, 
taking their error for truth, or what even is worse, some knowing its 
nature, yet for the sake of selfish gain and advantage, use it 
hypocritically to deceive others, and both endeavor to catch as 
many new proselytes for their creed, as they possibly can. d.) As 
this same policy is pursued by all alike, the real friends of God's 
whole truth, find no place where to attach themselves, but must 
be content to have silent intercourse with God alone, and here and 
there with the honest soul of a god-loving friend. Hence there is 
neither peace nor progress found in these antagonizing sects, but a 
constant wrangling, combating, and fighting, whereby men inflict 
mutually upon one another, all the suffering and misery they can. 
It is but a poor consolation for the kind heart of the beholder's 
mind, to know, that by the laws of God's economy, all the mis- 
chief thus caused, will eventually, with compound interest, fall 
crushingly upon the devoted heads of the ringleaders, and con- 
coctors, in all these schemes of evil and wrong. 



*" but wherever our Reason, windlike carries us, there must we go." Re- 
public, page 75, Taylor's translation. 



186 THE TEMPLE OF TKUTH. 

15. Nature, reason, and religion, each alone and for itself, may 
give man impressions of isolated and detached truths ; but these 
impressions are still subject to the possibility of being also errors. 
But as there are no other sources from which man can draw 
any kind of information whatever, but only these three, em- 
bracing all things contained in boundless infinity, it follows with 
inevitable certainty : 1.) That every proposition in which nature, 
reason, and religion agree, is thereby stamped as an absolute truth. 2.) 
If all; the truths are compiled together, in which these three eternal 
revelations of God thus agree ; man therein has the clear and uner- 
ring revelation of God's own supreme will, intellect, wisdom, and code 
of law, in a form that never will, nor can, change throughout all 
coming eternity. 

16. And in the preceding we presume we have laid the founda- 
tion for a system of dialectics ; which, as it will be developed in 
the remaining chapters, will lead the truth-loving mind into all 
truth ; and, shall form a touchstone, whereby the true worth and 
value of all things for man, may be ascertained to an atom. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

IS THERE AN INHERENT AIM OR END, CREATIVELY ATTACHED 
TO EVER7 MAN BORN INTO LIFE ; AND, IF SO, WHICH AND 
WHAT IS IT ? 

1. Nations, peoples, cities, communities and men, in consideration 
that their leaders have no aims and purposes at Jieart, and in view, 
worthy of man and the age, have, of late years, by great and nobly 
aspiring intellects,* justly and severely been stigmatized as : "Aim- 
less nations, and cities," and, men, with purposes so dead as to deserve 
coffins." As the large majority of men in nations and cities are 
always more or less in a condition, that impels them to follow the 
same direction, which the controlling current of events leads the 

* Emerson and Carlyle. 



THE AIM AND END INNATE IN MAN. 187 

whole mass to pursue ; it must be evident that chaos and confu- 
sion must ensue and prevail, where there are no great ennobling 
common aims, binding the vast masses together. 

2. It would, however, be unjust to accuse our own times and 
communities alone, with a charge which, in the main point, falls 
with equal justice upon all times and nations of the present and the 
past ; if ignorance of man's true aim and the end for which he was 
created, is a matter that mankind are chargeable with, in case the 
accusation is sustained by fact. For the right and correct definition 
of an important idea, is, in human pursuits, precisely the same 
thing, that the distinct discovery of an important new star is in 
astronomy. Such star may, by keen eyes or instruments, have 
been dimly seen before amid a mass of nebulas, but perhaps never 
have been dreamt to be the sun of suns. 

3. There have been great and good men in all ages, such as 
Hermes Trismegist, various individuals called Zertusht (Zoroaster), 
Moses, Confucius, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, various 
great prophets in Israel, and various other sages in Greece and other 
nations, all before the time of Cheist. All these men taught and 
practiced wisdom and virtue, as well as they understood and knew 
how. No one among them did, however, at any time clearly un- 
derstand man's destiny on earth. For, if they had understood it, 
they, or any one of them, would have attempted to frame a defini- 
tion that would have made the query heading this chapter need- 
less. That they could not foreknow the mode in which, long after 
their time, Christ solved this great riddle, by a scientific definition as 
clear and definite as any one in Euclid or elsewhere ; can, of course, 
in nowise redound to their discredit ; and this, infinitely less so, 
after the astounding fact shall be looked at for one moment only, 
which we now presently shall disclose further below. 

4. Christ often has been looked upon with less veneration, by 
some men, because unauthorized and unqualified system-builders, 
men unfit and unable to form a valid judgment in the premises, 
have asserted that there was neither systematic arrangement in 
what Christ taught, nor was there material enough in the four, so- 
called, Gospels, to frame his system into the full form of a consum- 
mate science. Now, if these talkers really knew any thing at all 
about what a system is and means, they (like Cuvier, and similar 

16 



188 THE TEMPLE OF TKUTH. 

men, on being shown the mere tooth or other parts of an extinct 
species of fossil, at once were capable of describing by it the whole 
size, figure, and construction of the lost animal) ; as soon as they 
could see one leading text, in Christ's tuition, should be able to re- 
construct the whole balance of the system belonging to such text, 
if they had nothing else beside that single text. 

5. a.) But even the brawling ignorance of quacks of this sort 
shrinks into paltry insignificance, when viewed alongside, of the 
strange misconception and oversight, with which Christ's greatest 
truth, enunciated with scientific accuracy, has been treated by his 
best friends, from the beginning up to this very hour. For, it is 
now upward of eighteen hundred years since Christ thus taught. 
The great definition, of which we here speak, and shall after a 
while show, has since that time, during a course of more than 
eighteen centuries, been read and seen by hundreds of millions of 
eyes. Among them have been many highly-gifted men, of piety, 
virtue, wisdom, and great learning ; not only among the early so- 
called Fathers of the Church ; such as Origen, St. Augustine, St. 
Bernard, and many like them ; but here are the great giants of 
thought : a Bacon, Descartes, Pascal, Spinoza,* Locke, Marle- 
branche, Leibnitz, Berkeley, Kant, Herder, Lambert, Fichte, Schell- 
ing, Hegel, with thousands of other names throughout Christendom 
bordering in celebrity closely upon these. Well, all these men, 
great thinkers by nature, and philosophers by profession, have, all 
of them, surely read the New Testament, and hence seen every 
expression of Christ therein contained. b.) Now, what is the 
reason, that all of them have overlooked that very proposition of 
which we are here speaking, and which contains Christ's entire sys- 
tem compressed into a smaller compass than a nutshell t Surely we 
have no reason for wondering that the heathen sages of antiquity, 
did not of themselves discover the proper formula for defining 
man's destination and end of existence upon earth ; when, after 
Christ has brought and published the definition of that very idea, 
in a shape so consummate that it defies the possibility of all amend- 
ment; and yet, the great thinkers of nearly two thousand years, 
with the rest of civilized mankind, in their company, read, see, 

* Spinoza was of Jewish extraction, but acknowledged the validity of Christian ethics. 



THE AIM AND END INNATE IN MAN. 189 

and hear that text expounded and preached upon ; and not one of 
the whole of the countless multitude, ever dreaming of its true 
and clear meaning and sense, and that all heaven, and its infinite 
eternal beatitude, lies here, within their grasp, before their very feet ! 
Who can explain this mighty mystery, that so many millions of 
people, with their greatest thinkers among them, were prevented 
from seeing and understanding an infinite truth, in itself as plain 
and dear as that 2 X 2=4 ? 

6. We will give one kind of answer to this question, which will 
at least settle, by a stubborn matter-of-fact, a point which has often 
been mooted in various quarters, as connected with this question. 
That point is this : Many men have asserted, and some do yet at 
this day : " That there was no need of any other revelation than 
the two of nature and reason ; that these two contain all the light 
that man may need, and that hence a special religious revelation 
was superfluous." Now, to stop the vacant verbiage of soft- 
brained ignorance like this ; and, at the same time, set at rest the 
doubts upon the matter, in minds more able and competent of 
judging : we have here the above tremendous, in its true nature 
inexpressible, fact, that, after having seen the main point that must 
concern every man, more than any other, for a period of more than 
eighteen hundred years, stated in language so plain that he " Who ' 
runs may read ;" neither churches, nor clergy, neither the governing, 
nor governed, neither the people, nor the thinkers and philosophers 
of all Christendom, have ever taken the least publicly known no- 
tice of an ethical axiom of- Christ, which compresses the whole of 
his system, the whole essence of the Bible and nature, and the wis- 
dom of time and eternity, in a definition of man's end and purpose 
of existence upon earth, in a simple sentence of twelve words ! ! ! 

7. But this is by no means the whole of the wonder. For we 
shall presently show, that nature and reason, by their practical 
operation, have each done all they could, to call the attention of 
mankind's collective best intellect to this very point, so that they 
almost should stumble, as it were, with their eyes shut, upon the 
great, all-embracing truth, alone capable of harmoniously solving 
the hitherto dismal sphinx riddle of human destiny upon earth 
and beyond. Here then is the proof of the absolute necessity of 
a third, or religious revelation, if even not needed on other accounts, 



190 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

because men, with nature around and reason within, and religion 
trying to thump their noses upon the great point, have yet failed, up 
to this very day, to duly understand the end of their existence upon 
earth, and to give a scientific or any other definition thereof, capable 
of convincing all reflecting minds that the same was true and cor- 
rect. However, let us now adduce the clear proof of the main 
point, of which we have spoken thus much, without, as yet, point- 
ing it out, by specific definition. 

8. a.) Now, as there are, as we have seen in the preceding 
chapter, only three sources extant, and none others possible, from 
which man can draw any knowledge whatever (inasmuch as all 
those that are thinkable, are included in one or the other of these 
three), we have now to learn, what each one of these divine reve- 
lations has to say, to the query heading our chapter. Nature, as 
we have already seen in chap, xi, § 7, e, when analyzing sight, is 
a whole tissue of means to ends, so that every part has to serve as 
a means to some particular end of the whole ; and the whole, in its 
turn, becomes the main means to secure to every separate part its 
own and appropriate aim. b.) In looking upon the vast hive of 
human beings, moving as busily as bees, or rather ants, upon the 
molehill spot each respectively occupies, all in hot pursuit of some 
petty individual aim, differing in some traits, and resembling in 
others, to the object hunted after by every other one of his neigh- 
bors and fellows ; the query of our chapter, still more closely 
specified as follows, must occur to every reflecting mind, namely : 
" Whetlier there is not one grand aim, embracing all others, for which 
to reach, all men alike, have received their life and existence ; and if so, 
which and wliat is it ?" 

9. Now, let us call our three divine witnesses seriatim to the 
stand, and learn their august answers to our all-important, world- 
adjudging query. First, sublime Reason, erst-begotten daughter of 
uncreated intellect, inborn light of the race of man, please give us 
thine answer to thin, the most weighty query, of all that are possi- 
ble for man. " Reason. In accordance with the laws of my being, 
my action consists in a perpetual series of judgments upon the size, 
form, contents and value of every thing brought before me ; dis- 
tributing all things into their respective classes, classifying these 
very classes again into a smaller number, repeating the same process 



THE AIM AND END INNATE IN MAN. 191 

with the latter and their followers, until I reach one ultimate unity, 
beyond which my functions do not reach, as unity is oneness with 
myself.* Here, then, I rest my theorizing, and step outside into the 
actual, to realize my highest thought, by a series of actions, corres- 
ponding to the series of thoughts preceding and producing it. In 
conformity with these premises, there is, among all the countless 
number of aims which man and men may pursue, but one single 
greatest and supreme one, embracing all the rest, and its name is : 
PERFECTION. All-sided perfection of all the powers, and faculties of 
man, men, nations, and the whole human race liarmoniously developed, 
concordially acting in friendly unison to achieve and realize perfec- 
tion in all things : is the highest and ultimate ideal aim, which my, 
and any, thought, can reach. At and in it, I must thinkingly rest, 
and am constrained practically to strive after its realization. Even 
now, and at all times heretofore, before my present definite decision 
could be known anywhere, I have acted, and do act, in my func- 
tion called common sense, with all men, at all times, on all occasions, 
and under all circumstances, where I act at all, upon the grand 
principle above enunciated; whereby the silent mind of every man 
as well in its solitary chamber of thought, as on the market or high- 
way of noisy life, is consciously or unconsciously constrained to 
adjudge (subject, of course, always, to the extent and degree of the 
individual's knowledge), every thing by this great standard, and 
call men and things, words and actions, works and labors, good or 
bad, useful or hurtful, valuable or worthless, interesting or indiffer- 
ent, etc., etc., in proportion as the same approximate or recede from 
the idea of perfection, as they entertain it in the particular case be- 
fore them. Hence, they patronize the best mechanic, artist, physi- 
cian, jurist, etc., etc., in preference to the bungler, because they 
know that the works of these men will be the best they can get 

* Let us adduce the following as a sample of the process : If a man would ask me . 
"Where are you?" My answer would be: "In my room." He then would ask: 
"Where is your room?" Ans. " In my house." "But where is your house ?" Ans. 
" In the town." So he would continue asking, until the last answer would tell him that 
the town was in the township, it in the county, the county in the State, the State in the 
Union, the Union on the continent, the continent on the globe, the globe in the solar sys- 
tem, and it in the universe, and that in absolute space. Here, then, is the end of the in- 
quiry, where reason must stop and forever abide ; and similarly in all other cases 
when reaching the, clima? in each. 



192 THE TEMPLE OP TRUTH. 

of the kind ; or, in other words, come nearer to the standard of 
perfection, than the works of inferior men, could ever do. That 's 
mine answer." 

10. Now, u thou venerable, silently-mute, all-powerful, terribly- 
majestic, beautiful, ever-young, sphinx- veiled, sternly-kind, all- 
mother Nature, please alight, for a few moments, amidst thy 
children, to give us thine answer to our weighty query. And as thy 
language, dearest mother, is not like ours, often only articulated 
' sound and fury signifying nothing,'' but consists all in acts and deeds 
that have no double meaning : we will endeavor briefly to trans- 
late from them, thy response to our interrogation into our own 
articulated tongue, and at the end, a joyous electric flash from thy 
brilliant eye, shall be our token that we have duly and truly under- 
stood, and correctly and faithfully rendered thy matter-of-fact 
answer into our own speech. 'Nature. I, whom you men, in 
your tongue, call Nature, am as you correctly assume, the work, 
and thereby a revelation of God. In me, the power and might of 
the Creator stands, sensually realized, revealed before man, in the 
form of supreme majesty and completion. Power and capacity inex- 
haustible, the source of my never- tiring operations, are in me, 
everywhere subjected, to rule and law, impregnated into me by 
Supreme Wisdom, thereby producing order, beautiful and sublime in 
my vast fields. As thou, man ! art an imitative being, God has 
placed me before thy senses, as a visible and tangible pattern, con- 
summate as a whole, and perfect in all its parts, in order thereby 
to incite thee to thine own proper task. That tasJc which, not I, but 
thou alone canst perform, is the embracing and pursuit of thy 
highest and greatest aim, which also I, in consonance with eternal 
sister Season, pronounce to be : all-sided Perfection ! For, behold : 
in my never-resting activity to definite ends, thou hast the most 
perfect pattern, of perfect action in pursuit of an adequately perfect 
aim. Moreover, it is thy and my destiny, decreed by God's eternal 
will, or the fate impregnated in our mutual being, that we can 
stand toward one another in two distinct and diametrically opposite 
relations only, namely : thou must be either my master or my slave, 
and I myself, vice versa, can be only either thy slave or thy master. 
Our God has destined thee to be my master ; hence it is my own 
desire, that thou shouldst be so. For then we are in our divinely 



THE AIM AND END INNATE IN MAN. 193 

ordained relation to one another. But mark ! Thy persevering and 
consistent striving after the perfection which thine own creative power 
is to realize, in and out of thyself is the only and inevitable condition 
in and under which thou canst be my master. In proportion as thou 
aspirest after and reachest this divinity, in the abstract and the con- 
crete, in the same degree, am I, by divine impulse constrained to love 
thee ; to disclose to thee my secrets ; pour into thy lap my boundless 
treasures ; and, as it were, to serve, and be subject to, thee, at all 
times, as ^familiar spirit, with all the powers I possess. While, on 
the contrary, in the same degree as, by an improper and immod- 
erate use, or rather abuse, of my gifts, thou deviatest and declinest 
from the grand path to thy gloriously destining aim, thereby making 
thyself thy own foe, an enemy to God and thy race : I also shall 
become thy most terrible, bitter, and irreconcilable enemy ; lashing 
thy first transgressions leniently, to drive thee back into the path of 
duty and glory ; but if that, and its increase, not heeding : I shall 
let loose upon thee, the fettered awful furies, latently, peaceably, 
and harmlessly slumbering in my vast lap ; which, in the shape of 
corroding poisons, and consuming many-figured fires, shall, by weak- 
ness and pain, disease and remorse, and a painful and premature 
death, with a bosom destitute of hope, wipe thee out of the ranks of 
visible existence ! This, man ! is my solemn answer." " Great 
Mother, thy glittering eye assures us that we understand each 
other !" 

11. Now, fairest among the fair, — loveliest of all things in the 
infinite universe, — beautiful, heaven-born, sweet Lady Lily Siona* 
religion of Christ Jesus, we entreat thy celestial presence for a few 
moments, to learn from thine own divine lips again thy great an- 
swer to our paramount query, as thou didst reveal it to us over 
eighteen hundred years ago. "Lily Siona. Here, dearest man, 
darling of my heart, here I am, ready at all times to help and 
serve thee ; for no mother can love the child of her womb with an 
ardor more intense than I love thine entire race. Hence let me 
give thee, with mine answer, also an explanation why thou abso- 
lutely needest me. To all action there are three parties. The 
syllogism consists of three propositions. The geometrician must 

* Kloppstock, Goethe, and Stilling may be considered the parents of this euphonic 
name. 



194: THE TEMPLE OP TRUTH. 

have a triangle before he is able to ascertain the contents of any 
surface. To perform any kind of work, there must be a worker, 
he must have tools and materials. When the intellect thinks, there 
is an object, and its thought upon that object, in all cases, before 
it, making, with the intellect, three things engaged in the opera- 
tion. All these, and a vast number of similar facts, have their 
foundation in the primary conformation and constitution of original 
being, which also assumes the same triform shape ; for there is first : 
space, inclosing all things ; its never-commenced or ending duration 
is eternity, in both of which creation or the universe exists, making 
again three. In man, mind, soul, and body, announce their dis- 
tinction in his consciousness. Father, mother, and child, are the 
three necessary ingredients that constitute a family. Now, there 
are certain performances in life and nature, where two forces caii 
not act at all harmoniously, or productively, but absolutely require 
a third to co-operate. Thus the mechanic, having the tools, must 
likewise have the material, otherwise mechanic and tools remain 
idle and unproductive. Thus, also, water and oily or greasy sub- 
stance, may be boiled in a seething caldron, until every particle 
thereof is evaporated or consumed, before they will ever show any dis- 
position to unite or combine. But, no sooner do you introduce the 
peacemaking alkali or lye between them, for which both of them 
have an affinity or friendship, than they will, at once, all three, 
embrace each other with loving affection, and melt themselves to- 
gether into the one highly useful substance called soap. Now, my 
dear man, before I came, the Eternal had revealed himself, and 
thine end and aim, to thee in the twofold manner of reason and 
nature already heard. And their voices received assistance, by the 
remnant of true worship, flowing up from earlier ages with the 
course of time, and were likewise strengthened by those religious 
experiences, by which good, wise, and truly pious men, so far as 
they were fit instruments, did at all times, and among all nations, 
in some degree or other, learn to know portions of God's attributes 
and essence, more impressively than by mere abstract thought alone. 
In nature God revealed to thee his power, and in reason his wisdom. 
In all individual reason, there is innate a ray of my own light.* which, 

* John i, 4. 



THE AIM AND END INNATE IN MAN. 195 

by being fostered, may so enlarge, that God himself can therein 
dwell with his entire being, and. thus make man his tabernacle and 
permanent dwelling-place, which is his wish to accomplish in all 
men.* But, before my arrival, thou didst fully understand, neither 
the voice of reason, nor of nature ; hence the incessant conflicts of 
the two. Nature did not acknowledge human reason, in the small 
and partial'- » -^pment, wherein it even appeared in the most 
gifted human m jd ua i s before my time, as its superior and master, 
and hence yi e ^ an unwilling obedience only in the small de- 
gree, and the . caseSj w here that unenlightened reason, had still 
power enoug & to com p e j jt • reason, in its immature state, could 
not master nature, as it felt it ought : because it did not yet 
clearly understand the way to enlarge its light and increase its 
waning force, by new supplies drawn from the infinite ocean of 
light and 'power, that is its source and origin. Hence, neither indi- 
vidual men, nor communities, nor entire nations, f knew the real end 
and aim of their existence upon earth, and pursued each in their 
places, such objects and purposes as passion, imagined interest, power, 
whim, and necessity for the moment dictated. Hence war, conquest, 
and ruthless oppression of the weak and the vanquished, were the in- 
dividual and general rule and practice among men and nations, be- 
fore I came. When arriving, I found no nation, no organized com- 
munity, not even the educated and instructed class thereof, ready to 
receive my light and tuition. Only here and there a truth-seeking 
Nicodemus, a noble-hearted Joseph of Arimathea, saw, felt, and 
appreciated the greatness and necessity of the truth I proclaimed. 
The rest of the men of gifts, talents, means, standing, and influ- 
ence, I found pre-engaged, engrossed, and wedded to their own 
petty schemes of transient self-interest, dead to living truth and 
the transcending interests of suffering, bleeding humanity ; nay, 
most earnestly engaged in assisting to crush it everywhere in their 
respective spheres. Thus I had to apply myself to the unlettered, 
uneducated man, who, standing nearer to rude, rough, vigorous 
nature, was neither enervated in body and heart, nor refinedly 
spoiled in his natural straitness of common sense and sympathy for 
his race, by the sordid, casuistic, sophistical dialectics of the selfish, 

* Apocal. xxi, 3. t Isaiah liii, 6. 

17 



196 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

rushing hour. Into his heart and ear I poured the great secrets I 
brought from God's own throne. I showed him, that God himself, 
was living! y present in every human being ; that, therefore, all the 
wrong and all the good men do unto one another, they do to, and 
inflict upon, their own Ood (Matt, xxxv, 40, 45). I made him un- 
derstand, that God is eternal peace within himself, and that his ever 
harmonious forces can never war and wrangle among one s»*6fegeH. 
That, hence, men should never quarrel with l aelr Dre thren, and 
even suffer the wrong, inflicted by passion or igno ance u pon them, 
with immovable patience, because thereby alone e ^ car > expect 
to enlighten the blind, and gain them to the great 2 8/llse °f eternal 
truth. Such gaining of a man to truth, I showed as the greatest 
work that a man could perform, worthy to be done by a God (Matt, 
xviii, 12 ; Luke xv, 4, — xix, 10). I showed and made him feel 
that the inexpressible happiness of a godlike heaven was his, the 
very moment that he was joined together with true men, in the 
bonds of genuine friendship, true love, and pure affection. I made 
him see, that a community consisting altogether of men thus living 
in and for one another, aspiring conjointly to one highest aim, was a 
state of brothers, a commonwealth of friends and lovers, and a nation 
of pure men, without one single beast of prey, in human form, in 
their midst. Such a congregation of men I told them was the 
realized ' kingdom or government of God on earth? wherein God 
himself dwells and rules in the hearts of men. For its arrival I 
taught them to work, suffer, labor, and enjoined them to pray to the 
Lord : ' Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is done 
in Jieaven!' I showed them by my example that beings in human 
shape, could do the will of God on earth as fully, as any angels 
could do the same before God's throne. For there is no higher 
action possible for man, or angel, than to act like God himself. 
And here, I finally come to the great point, that compresses my 
whole doctrine into a single sentence, which also is the greatest and 
shortest answer to man's greatest query. For, after depicting to 
man, in the sermon of the iftount, all the various virtues required 
to complete a human character pleasing to God and man, and show- 
ing the natural effects thereof; I show them that the whole 
structure must rest upon a foundation of such unlimited goodness, 
as to do good, like God himself, to all human beings, whether 



THE AIM AND END INNATE IN MAN. 197 

they are virtuous or the contrary; whether they are friendly or 
hostile, and placing absolute goodness, as their everlasting pattern 
before their eyes, I tell them : ' Therefore, yon should be PERFECT, 
like your Father in heaven is PERFECT.'* Matt, v, 48. 

12. " In order to make my doctrine strong, invincible, its glorious 
Author practiced every maxim He taught, to its fullest extent by 
His own action, and crowned His godlike life, by a love-prayer for 
His murderers worthy of a God ; exclaiming amid His torture : 
1 Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do /' Luke xxiii, 
34. The doctrine so humane and heavenly, sustained by a life so 
divine and a death so godlike, f found incipiently a small number 
of true hearts to embrace and cling to it. And when, after their 
beloved Master's departure, the promised spirit of truth, joy, and 
power, descended upon them on the day of Pentecost, A. D. ' 34,' 
they melted into a society of men, who were all, in truth and 
reality, brothers and sisters, friends and lovers, so much so, that 
like the uncorrupted child of youth, their love to living men became 
again greater than their attachment to dead things. For, in Acts, 
chap, ii, 44, 45, we read that : l All that believed were together, and had 
all things in common ;' ' and sold their possessions and goods, and 
parted them to all men, as every man had need.' Their number now 
increased rapidly ; for, in chap, iv, 4, the number of believing men 
(not counting women and children), is stated at five thousand. 
They continued still increasing ; nevertheless the spirit of brotherly 
unity remained; for, verse 32, same chapter, states: 'And the 
multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one 
soul ;' and, verse 35, l Distribution was made unto every man ac- 
cording as he had need.' Here, then, for once was a com- 
munity without any paupers and sufferers, inasmuch as every mem- 
ber thereof loved, and honored in every other one, a divine being 
destined like himself to an ever increasing perfection, and each 
emulating to excel the other in goodness, virtue, and love, thereby 
promoting his own and the perfection of all the rest. Such were 
the men, selected and prepared to spread the doctrine of heaven and 
nness, through a world filled with ferocious barbarism, and ruled, 



* This is Luther's version of the text, that in the English Testament differs some in 
words, but not in sense, from it. 
t J. J. Rousseau. 



198 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

at the time, by the iron arm of the Roman all-crushing military 
despotism. The commission, by which these men were author- 
ized and empowered to lead a world, swamped in the morass of 
darkness, out of its dismal gloom upon the solid ground, in the 
bright daylight of joyful truth, contains internal evidence that the 
same was issued at the ' headquarters ' of this universe. For, 
there is no longer a pet 'preference perceptible of one people to be 
more acceptable than another, — no sectarian nationality taints the 
invitation to return to the fold of Him who is truly 'the Father 
of all ;' but, embracing the whole race of man, they are charged : 
' To go into all the world (Mark xvi, 15), and teach all nations (and, 
if willing to come into the universal brotherhood, to admit them 
thereinto by the formulary of), baptizing them in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to ob- 
serve all things whatsoever, which they liad been commanded.' Matt, 
xxviii, 19, 20. Into that wild, savage world, these men, void of 
all worldly power and means, fearlessly went, joyfully sacrificing 
life and limb upon the altar of God's truth and man's great cause; 
and infusing their lamb-like spirit of peace into the world's vio- 
lently beating heart, they gradually tamed its ferocity in every part 
wherever they came. It did not take a great many years, until 
the fervid affection, which everywhere undisguisedly, they man- 
ifested for one another, and mankind in general, attracted the 
public attention of the reflecting Pagans among whom they lived ; 
for these, full of admiration, would often point with their fingers 
at them, saying unto each other : 'Behold ! how these people do love 
one another /' A great poet, considered by many also, as a great 
sage, has, within the last half century, proclaimed that : 'Happy 
alone is the soul that does love /' * True love is founded on esteem. 
Esteem springs from the loftiness of the aim, which a man pur- 
sues, as it stamps its own value upon every quality in the man's 
character. No sooner, therefore, was God's own perfection, de- 
clared as the true aim and end of man's aspirations ; when each of 
the men, thus aspiring, became the perpetually increasing object of 
higher admiration and deeper love for one another, as they progressed 
in the more perfect practice of all the divine virtues. And thereby, 

* Goethe. 



THE AIM AND END INNATE IN MAN. 199 

as love is declared happiness, the increase of happiness must forever 
keep pace with the increase of love. Hence, as the pursuit of god- 
like perfection, is an aim, that gives man employment, forever and 
ever, it thereby also continues increasing his beatitude to all eternity. 

13. "Although there was not a single intellect in all Christen- 
dom, from Pentecost, ' 34,' up to our own time, who compassed 
Christ's infinite plan, design and doctrine with scientific accuracy, 
as is proven by the simple fact above adduced, that not one, even, 
of the profound thinkers of the Christian era, did ever discover 
man's destination as proclaimed by Christ, in Matth. v, 48 ; yet the 
spirit of vital progress, contained in the whole and every part of the 
grand system of truth and love, operated incessantly upon the mil- 
lions of minds that had embraced it. It first sapped the iron sol- 
dier-despotism of all-ruling Eome, and finally broke it all into pieces, 
which it remodeled as circumstances would permit. Then, it in- 
fused itself into the vast host of the mighty Teutonic tribes ; and 
rousing their unmeasured power of action and thought for its grand 
purposes, consummated the great fermentation among all of them, 
causing their irruption into, and subjugation of, Southern Europe, 
Asia Minor, and Northern Africa , whereby the groundwork of the 
political geography of those, and in part of other countries of the 
globe, was laid as it subsists at this very moment. After the great 
national upheavings subsided, the surface of the human Ocean 
became measurably settled and quiet. The greatness of the new 
truth I brought, swelled the hearts and souls of men, and they felt 
that it was I who harmonized nature and reason. The mighty 
conflicts this truth had to pass through, to make good its foothold 
in the world, made men serious and pensive.* They had already 
before, driven by persecution, sought shelter in the solitude of 
the wilderness ; and finding an enjoyment unknown to the world 
in the contemplation of great truths, f unmolested by exterior dis- 
turbance : it laid the foundation of that spirit of calm study and 
diligent research, which gradually hunted up the books and knowl- 
edge of all times and nations, and ransacking the fields of nature 

* "ttrtb ber 5D?ettf<$ griff benf enb in fetne Sruft !"— Schiller's SMtafter. 

tll-y-a-dans la meditation des pensees honnetes une sorte de bien-etre que lea 
mechans n'ont jamais connues. — Jean Jac. Rousseau. 



200 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

wherever accessible throughout the universe, has finally resulted in 
that so-called state of civilization, as now you have it around you, 
in the second half of the nineteenth century. That the motley 
structure of this state is interwoven with a vast amount of evil, the 
extent of which being utterly unknown to men, is absolutely true. 
That, however, the same has also furnished to man an amount of 
light and knowledge, of means and forces, never in the possession of 
mankind, at any time heretofore, and sufficing, if duly applied, to 
lead man gradually out of the evils he is suffering, is not less true. 
Now, all that is yet required, is, that men should open their eyes 
and learn to understand God's voice within, and all around them. 
They wish a heaven. God has placed the same within their reach, 
and it being such an one containing greater glories and beatitudes 
than they have ever seen in dream or fiction. That heaven is theirs, 
the moment they learn to know and understand that, separately and 
alone, not one single man can reach the great end and aim of existence 
for which all are created : but no sooner do they, as God wills it, com- 
bine to pursue the grand goal in common, when, at once, no one can 
any longer miss it, though he were but a fool, unless he chooses to do so 
by design. — Isaiah, xxxv, 8. The world has long known the secret 
to deprive death and devastation of its terrors, by producing and 
executing them on the largest scale, by hundreds of thousands on 
the bloody field of battle. But men have never yet learned to aj)ply 
the magic and mysterious power connected with numbers, to their 
own benefit, and securing their highest good. There are, however, 
now signs indicating the time to be at hand, when they will learn 
it ! With this, I close mine answer." 

14. a.) Now, good luck to us ! our road has, at last, emerged 
entirely out of the woods, and we find ourselves upon a grand, graded 
highway, running upon a sublime, elevated level, ascending " on- 
ward and upward," rising higher and higher, as we progress, so 
that our vision embraces a larger cycle in proportion as the things 
increase, at which we are looking, that we have left "below and 
behind" us. That highway is, for the reason, an "unerring one,"* 
because the three witnessing guides who conjointly point it out, 
represent every voice found in creation or the universe, — so that, 

* Isaiah, xxxv, 8. 



TIIE AIM AND END INNATE IN MAN. 201 

outside of them, there is no other source whatever, either for truth or 
error, b.) Man, until now, found himself on earth, feeling that he 
had to journey to some place or other, but not knowing "where, 
which, and what 1 ' that place was. He, therefore, has boxed the 
known compass by traveling in all possible directions, and yet 
never has succeeded in learning the topograghy of his " paradise 
lost," and seeking, so that he could have been able of giving his 
son, daughter, or friend, such a direction to that all-wished- for spot, 
whereby it might unerringly be found by every attentive seeker. 
That deficiency is now forever provided for. The aim of man 
thus therein pointed out, contains likewise inherent proof, that it is 
the only one worthy of God and man ; and is thus not only worthy 
of being in this manner pointed out by the three eternal and only 
sources of all knowledge : but it is also the highest aim possible, 
that language can name, and that the intellect of either man or God 
can entertain. The simple fact that Jesus Christ defined this tran- 
scendent truth, with the precision, of a geometrical axiom over eighteen 
centuries ago, will show and indicate to the logical thinker who and 
what this Christ was, — namely : all and every thing which he 
claimed to he. c.) Plato, a noble and great thinker, in several parts 
of his writings, makes, here and there, use of the word perfect and 
perfection ; but he does so only in the limited sense of these terms, 
to denote the best thing of its kind, in which same way they were 
used, by many others at, and since, his time. But, to look upon the 
infinite idea in the light it is placed in by Christ as a divine and 
universal pattern, before all minds, to copy and aspire after : never 
entered Plato's mind to be a practical possibility even in a dream. 
For the degradation of the great masses of his time, around him, 
he ascribed correctly to their various degrees of folly, craziness, and 
madness. And he considered their condition incurable, because he 
erroneously thought they had really not the higher mental capacity 
whereby they could be made wise and virtuous. For he distinctly 
declares : '* Intellect only the gods possess, and a few mortals favored 
by tliem. u * That error, to become convinced to be such, no mind 
would have embraced the correcting instruction with greater readi- 
ness and delight, than the loving soul of Plato, d.) That Plato, by 

* Timaeus, p. 358 (Taylor's translation). 



202 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

the light of the love that was within him, did, however, cast pro- 
found glances into the depths of human nature, and understood 
much of the process by which alone man can be lifted out of his 
degradation, is clearly perceptible by many of his expressions. 
Thus, he says, in the Banquet, page 516, " The wlwle of our race 
would he happy, if we worked out love perfectly." On page 489 of the 
same, he says : " There is not a man so much of a coward, as that love 
would not divinely inspire him to deeds of valor, and make him equal 
to the very best by birth.'''' Here he clearly sees into the grand secret, 
how man's redemption might be accomplished, if such a love, 
mighty enough to inspire all, could be found and made available 
for the same. But such love, Plato, in his day, found only within 
his own bosom, and here and there in that of one or another noble 
man and woman, like his beloved Socrates and the divine Diotima. 
That a love so, and even incalculably more, powerful, should become 
an exterior fact, about four centuries afterward, on the day of Pen- 
tecost, Plato could not foreknow. If he had foreknown its coming, 
it would have made him happy beforehand, beyond metes and bounds. 
15. a.) If man reaches the great aim for which he was created, 
he has gained every thing that is necessary. If he gains every 
other thing, and misses this mighty aim, he has lost every thing, — 
(Matt, xvi, 26 ; Mark, viii, 37). Hence, this aim, is man's meter and 
touchstone for every thing existing in creation. It is, therefore, the 
very soul and essence of the dialectics which we have been in search 
of. b.) Henceforward, things will all receive their own proper 
name, by the relation in which they stand to this great aim of man. 
The grand axiom: "by their fruits ye shall Tcnoio them" (Matt, 
vii, 16), will become applied to all men and things, within reach 
of man, on a scale so extensive as never before known. For, the 
time is at hand, when men will begin clearly to foresee the effect in 
the cause, and in return adjudge the cause by the effect. Hence, he 
will call all things bad, evil, and wrong, which oppose him in reach- 
ing his grand aim ; and, on the other hand, whatever shall aid and 
assist him, in facilitating his progress toward the great point of his 
destination, — he will call wholesome, right, and good, c.) Nothing 
that oppresses and deteriorates man, will, any longer, be considered as 
valuable and worthy of preservation. And the longest spun sophistry 
for whitewashing and embellishing antiquated wrong and hoary- 



THE AIM AND END INNATE IN MAN. 203 

headed error, will, in the twinkling of an eye, be dissolved into 
nothingness, by the short-cutting axioms : All is false and untrue 
that is not good ! and which inversely will read : Whatever is good 
must of necessity be true ! For, goodness is the nature, being, essence, 
and substance of God himself, — and hence, whatever is good, par- 
takes of his eternal nature ; and, in proportion that every thing thus 
approaches to, or recedes from, God, so is it in itself good, useful, and 
beneficial, or bad, hurtful, and injurious to man and his aim. d.) All 
the evil which man suffers, flows from the false aims he pursues. 
Christ, in showing him the only true aim, which is. valid now and 
forever, for one man and for all men, has therein shown him the 
road to heaven on earth, devoid of all misery whatsoever. For, as 
soon as men will duly aspire after perfection, poverty, ignorance, 
disease, and debility will depart from them, and plenty, wisdom, 
health, and vigor, enter as their permanent portion, with every 
thing good thereunto appertaining. For, the striving after perfec- 
tion, is "the seeking of the kingdom of God andhis righteousness," and 
to those thus striving, "all things shall be added unto them."— Matt. 
vi, 33. e.) Thus, it turns out in the end, that the Dialectics which we 
have been seeking, and have now finally and decisively found, as a 
touchstone for probing the nature of all things, — and what kind and 
degree of truth there is in them, — is one and the same thing with 
the Ethics of Eternity, or the code of morals and motives as ap- 
proved of by God himself. Until now, almost universally, man 
uses and treats man, more or less, everywhere, as a thing and 
chattel, which he values in proportion to the petty, paltry, con- 
temptible advantage he can draw out of him for his individual 
selfish benefit ; but does not at all reflect on the awful divine, eternal 
nature, present in all men, and that all of them will have a voice 
in the making up of that final destiny of man's race, wherein every 
human being is equally concerned. Hence, men have acquired the 
habitude to look upon earth as an everlasting vale of tears, and as 
the real and necessarily permanent homestead of every thing bad 
and evil. For, it is a very common thing to hear men express their 
doubts upon the reports of some good news, for the reason, that : 
" it is almost too good to be true !" Man will yet learn, that the very best 
is true. The moment approaches when many dead things, customs, 
and usages, that, until now, have had man's sanction, veneration, 



204. THE TEMPLE OP TEUTH. 

support, or connivance, will receive, after a most searching investi- 
gation, that true award at his hands, which their inherent nature and 
tendency merit and deserve. /.) The singular maxim, which, in 
Chap, xxi, 5 23, let. a and b, we adduced, as forming a portion of 
the systems of logic, for a long time ruling the schools upon earth, 
we shall discuss, in a subsequent chapter, as a more appropriate 
place for said discussion, than this present spot. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



WHAT WILL BE THE FORM AND SPIRIT OF THE SYSTEM OF PHILO- 
SOPHY FINALLY RULING THE MINDS OF MEN ? 

1. After man has ascertained the great end of his existence, 
and determined to pursue it as the supreme aim of his perpetual 
efforts, he has therein gained a firm foothold, an immovably fixed 
standpoint, from which, as an ark of safety, he can look com- 
posedly upon ail things in the universe, and ascertain and deter- 
mine his and their several relations toward one another. The 
correct knowledge and true perception of these manifold various 
relations, and their proper practical application, constitute that 
degree of intelligence in man, which is designated by the name of 
wisdom. That wisdom may, like raanj other things, be aptly 
compared to a sliding-scale, which has a lowermost point, by which 
it borders upon un-reason, irrationality, folly, craziness, and insanity, 
in their variegated shapes and modes, and ascending from that 
finite point, it rises upward in an infinite line, without boundary or 
end, forever increasing in extent and intensity. 

2. Such wisdom is never based, in any portion of its knowledge, 
upon hypothesis, suppositious assumption, or mere hearsay opinion, 
but upon those fundamental perceptions of intellect and sense, 
which, constituting the basis of all exact science, will stand the test 
of the universal reason of mankind, and the scrutiny of the con- 
joint experience of ages. The mind, enlightened by such wisdom, and 
the intellect of that other man, in whom such light is absent, occupy 
two different and diametrically opposite positions or standpoints. 



FORM AND SPIRIT OF THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 205 

The first stands, as it were, upon the summit of a high mountain, 
from which it has an unobstructed vision over the entire landscape, 
into the deep valleys below, and into every direction of the hori- 
zon all around, and upward into the unmeasured depth of the azure 
sky, whereby it can take a sweeping survey, not only of that grand 
sight, as one entire whole, but also clearly perceive position, shape, 
figure, and relation of its constituent parts. The man without such 
wisdom, is posted in a deep, obscure, nay, actually more or less, 
really dark valley, surrounded on all sides by hills, elevations, and 
mountains, that confine his vision of earth, horizon, sky, and even 
light, within certain contracted limits, so that all things, which lie 
beyond these limits, are to him unknown ; and as long as he re- 
mains where he is, will remain to him inaccessible ; and he can 
hence only possess such partial knowledge, as the few elements 
thereof, inclosed in his circumscribed situation, will afford. 

3. As the end and purpose of human existence, as now we have 
shown and defined the same, have, heretofore, never been per- 
ceived and viewed in that precise and definite light ; the efforts of 
mankind to progress onward in any given direction, have mainly 
consisted in the detached exertions of separated individuals, never 
yet connected with one another by a conjoint clearly understood 
purpose, and a mutually agreed upon, well-defined mode of opera- 
tion to achieve it. Hence, we find everywhere, in all branches of 
knowledge, from the highest to the lowest, that not as yet have 
crystallized into solid science, only onesided and partisan-colored 
exhibitions of a portion of its facts ; while, for the other part, we 
must look in an opposite quarter. A system of science, however, 
that is to be the main instrument in the hands of wisdom and vir- 
tue for leading progressive man unceasingly "onward and upward" 
to his glorious aim, allsided perfection ; must, from the very be- 
ginning embrace the total elements of the whole universe, as they 
reflect themselves in man's intellect, and place each portion thereof, 
in such position and relation, to all the rest belonging thereto, as 
the nature, office, and function of each, demand and require. 

4. Such system must therefore literally contain the germs of all- 
sided universality ; must, hence, embrace that, which reason ac- 
knowledges as its own in all systems of thought by whatever name 
thev go. From idealism it embraces the whole of what it has as a 



206 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

positive possession ; namely, the absolute and unassailable certainty 
of intellectual consciousness as a basis of all knowledge and science ; 
and, in return therefore, it will lift idealism out of its negative into 
a positive position towards nature, by restoring to its possession, 
those just claims, of which it heretofore (as mentioned in Chap, x, 
§§ 8 and 9), in a fit of silly self-denying abnegation, deprived itself 
by a surrender of the same to that shallow pretender, yclept "ma- 
terialism;" whom it will force to relinquish and restore the fraudu- 
lently acquired booty to its rightful owner, and then compel him 
to assume, under his proper true name, the subordinate post that 
reason and nature assign to him, and never again permit him to 
depart from it. From dogmatism it will accept the maxim, to con- 
sider the truth of which it is in possession, not a whit the less true 
and certain, because it is possible that there may yet be other and 
surpassingly important truths, whereof, as yet, it may possess not 
even the faintest surmise. For a solitary bird in the hand, has, for 
its possessor, a positive value, which is not diminished by the fact, 
that hundreds of birds may fly around him in the air, over which, 
however, he can exercise no control. Lastly, Argus-eyed Skepticism 
must be appointed as a sentinel Cerberus at the portals of our 
Temple of Truth, for he will surely permit nothing to pass into 
the precincts of the sanctuary that is not the pure and unalloyed 
truth ; for we, also, want nothing there to enter but it. Any other 
system, that under one name or other, different from either of tho 
above, may have got currency anywhere, at any time, in the world, 
need not be adduced here, as all of them are only variously modi- 
fied compounds, from parts of the above-named four. 

5. a.) All systems of thought, no matter by what name they 
are called, are compelled to assume the same positions as true for 
themselves, in which consist the primary strength of idealism, and 
are then equally obliged to erect their intended superstructure 
thereupon, under the operation of the same laws of thought that 
govern the thinking of all intellects, b.) Every man wishes and 
desires intelligence, since he knows that only by it he is enabled to 
protect himself against, and ward off, life's ills ; and procure and 
enjoy its goods. Upon this point, then, all men are of one unani- 
mous voice ; and as philosophy is only a name given to that all- 
embracing science, which endeavors to give man, first : a correct 



FOEM AND SPIRIT OF THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 207 

knowledge of all the known things in existence ; and, next, inform 
him what these things individually are and can he for him ; every man 
will hasten to acquire such a science, as soon as he shall become 
aware that it can furnish him the elements of the intelligence he 
needs and seeks, and that his mind is capable of grasping its leading 
principles, c.) Hence, when man thus aspires after intelligence, 
of which correct knowledge and true science are the indispensable 
materials, he is what is called a thinker. The grand and the first 
object and aim of the thinker is : To understand himself and the 
universe a.s both in reality are, and not merely imagined to be ; and 
thereby place himself beyond the peradventure of self-deceit and 
being deceived by others. 

6. a.) We have, heretofore (Chap, i and ii and elsewhere), stated 
that the process of thinking consists in two opposite operations, 
called analysis (decomposition), and synthesis (composition) ; but 
there is still a third one, of which, as yet we have not spoken, 
called analogy, being auxiliary to these two ; consisting in the 
mind's looking upon some otlier object, to see how analysis or syn- 
thesis was or is performed in its case ; and, from it ascertain, by 
comparing tlie resemblances subsisting between the two, how far the 
same process, may fitly be applied, with suitable modification, to the 
case the mind has under consideration, b.) There are many cases 
where such resemblance is almost perfect ; and the law is, that, so 
far and in the degree, as such resemblance really exists, the applica- 
tion of analogy is perfectly legitimate, by the assent both of logic and 
dialectics, as it is based upon the ascertained fact, that nature and 
reason both, everywhere, proceed, in their operations, upon the same 
simple, main principles. Hence, beside furnishing to thought, in 
many cases, the cue or first hint, how to commence its treatment 
of a subject, analogy, if happily used, furnishes a degree in clear- 
ness of illustration, that brings the subject within the cycle of lucid 
comprehension of many, who otherwise could liardly grasp it. 

7. a.) To reach his aim, the thinker is obliged to investigate 
all things coming within his reach, and probe them to their 
very bottom. He scrutinizes the floating opinions of the public 
mind, and whatever of substance they contain, if any, is crystallized 
in his mental crucible into an element of solid knowledge. That 
knowledge he pushes on and makes it grow, until he is able to 



208 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

impress thereon the seal and stamp of true science; that being the 
form to carry it into exterior practice, and make it conversant and 
familiar to a multitude of other minds. He, finally, after grasping 
the gist and essence of all, as yet only detachedly existing branches 
of science, is pressed, by mental necessity (Chap, xxiii, \ 9), to 
arrange them, as far as able, into one, all-embracing, liarmoniziny, 
system, so that his intellect, with one glance, may not only survey 
the same as a unity ; but also know the place, position, nature, 
office, and function of every individual part of the grand whole, 
and at any moment be able to find it, when needed for a particular 
purpose, b.) The outward form of such system, is a grand classi- 
fication of all things ; whose details consist in the realization of that 
simple, yet nevertheless wonderful shelfwork (or categories), innately 
but undevelopedly inherent in the human mind, whereby all men 
of normal parts, are enabled, by a proper course of culture, to be- 
come knowing, wise, and useful for themselves and oiliers. c.) As 
the things and objects with which the various shelves of this classifi- 
cation, from the largest or highest super- to their minutest or lowest 
subdivision, are to be filled, arranged, and distributed upon the princi- 
ple of sameness and difference, the knowledge of these shelves, carries 
along with it, or contains within itself, a knowledge of the attributes, 
properties, or qualities of the things to be therein placed, which is a 
knowledge of things as they are ; and, if complete, of what their 
essence consists in for man. d.) Now, in order to make this, our 
subject (being of and in itself one of paramount importance), as 
plain as possible, let us use the help of the analogy, of which 
above we have spoken. There is a man very active in human 
society, whose position and pursuit present many striking resem- 
blances to that of the progressive thinker, and that man is the thriving 
mercliant. The first is insatiable in his thirst after knowledge and 
truth ; the latter equally so in his desire for property and ivealth. 
The former uses his facts and truths to fill up the shelfwork of his 
system of science ; the latter his goods and wares, to fill the shelves 
of his storehouses. And, as all the visible proceedings of the merchant, 
are nothing else but the sensual reflex of the ideas of his mind, it 
is well worth our while to take a closer look at him and his work, 
as we may therein discover traits of analogy to our case, of a char- 
acter highly and essentially useful. 



FdEM AND SPIRIT OF THE FINALLY EULING PHILOSOPHY. 209 

8. a.) Well, as we may need to buy some trifle or other, let us 
walk up to, and take a look at, the universal store of A. Z.; who, 
being a retailer and wholesaler, a jobber and importer, has got his 
own numerous vessels at sea, bringing him the wares and mer- 
chandise of every kind, from all quarters of the globe. Just now 
the one tremendous building, covering acres of ground, containing 
his stores and warehouses,, in partitioned, well-arranged apartments, 
all under one roof, looms into vision. Here we enter its door, and 
are now within. The first impression that strikes you, is the im- 
mense amount of the most variegated stock, arranged in the most 
orderly manner, wherever your eye alights ; and the next, the ad- 
mirable and ingenious arrangement of counters, shelves, scales, 
balances, and meters, and useful instruments of all sorts, whereby 
business is facilitated, and dispatched with a noiseless and speedy 
tact, as regularly as clockwork, b.) In casting your eye about, you 
find the vast concern divided into various large classes or depart- 
ments, each one containing only articles duly and by nature belonging 
really to such class. Thus, you see, dry-goods, delf-ware, sta- 
tionery, hardware, groceries, and a vast number of other goods, all 
forming separate classes for themselves. All the things you see, 
although every article has its own proper name, yet the whole of 
them as a class, go by one general name, being called wares ; every 
separate piece of which has a definite price or value affixed, and a 
certain locality allotted to it, where you may be sure always to find 
it. Well, having seen our sights, let us call at the hardware de- 
partment, where all hands seem engaged in unpacking and opening 
boxes, packages, etc., and get the few articles we want to buy, and 
then return home : " Well, friend Manager, we want some pocket- 
and pen-knives, needles, etc., can you show us some ?" 

c.) Manager. — " Gentlemen, I am exceedingly sorry that it is 
out of my power to accommodate you just at this moment. We 
are, as you see, unpacking and opening a fresh stock of goods. 
The very articles you call for, as we know by the invoice, are in 
number and profusion, packed up somewhere, amidst these goods. 
As yet, we have not found any of them, in the packages opened 
thus far. We may find them in the next box, and we may not 
until opening the last. If you can wait, until we find the articles, 
we will be glad to accommodate you ; if not, you must seek else- 



210 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

where, as we even ourselves were compelled to do to-day, with 
some articles we needed." 

We. — " We can not wait ; for some of the things v/e absolutely 
need forthwith as an urgent necessity ; and if we do not get them, 
the time of their use will be past, and we may thereby be sub- 
jected to a loss or damage, a tlwiisand times their value, or even 
more. But, friend Manager, before we part, can you point out to 
us, among the great number of people visibly engaged in this vast 
establishment, the person of A. Z., the owner and chief ruler 
thereof?" 

d.) Manager. — " What is the reason you desire to see the per- 
son of A. Z.P> 

We. — " One reason is, because from the work before our eyes, 
whose origination and continuance being ascribed to him, we must 
consider him a man of extraordinary abilities. The other is. a 
curious report in the mouth of a few singular people, who say, that 
they, and many of their acquaintance, have often been at this store, 
but that no one of them, at any time, did ever get to see the per- 
son of its owner ; and, hence, they say, this is sufficient ground for 
a suspicion that the story of A. Z. may be altogether a fiction, and 
no such person in existence at all." 

Manager. — " Your first reason is very natural and even laudable, 
as all men, feel a desire to behold the person of men, endowed with 
uncommon abilities ; and, therefore, if A. Z. was within the prem- 
ises just now, I would cheerfully introduce you to his personal 
acquaintance. But your second reason, or rather its basis, the 
report, I am convinced, you yourself, consider as one that can 
only originate with uncommonly silly people. For all that you 
and others see and admire in this establishment, has neither sprung 
up from itself, nor could it preserve itself and its order. Hence, 
there was a human intellect its founder, and there must be now one 
its leader and preserver. If his name is A. Z. or B. ¥., would make 
no difference in the case with men of sense, and ought to make 
none to those without sense. For, if they see the person of a man 
of surpassing abilities, they do only see no more than the mere 
shell of that which is great and extraordinary in the man, as the real 
man resides in the thinking intellect, and is forever invisible. But 
the report of these people is ridiculous and absurd for another 



FOEM AND SPIRIT OP THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 211 

reason. Of the twenty-five millions of inhabitants of the United 
States, the smallest number have seen their President. The same 
may be asserted of the population of Great Britain, France, Kussia, 
and every other large nation on earth, with respect to its rulers. 
But, although, the by-far largest portion of the people of all these 
countries have never seen the person of James Buchanan, Queen 
Victoria, Louis Napoleon, Alexander II, etc., is there anywhere, in 
any of these countries, a sane intellect who, in real earnest, doubts 
that the above-named individuals are at the head of public affairs 
of their respective nations ? What is true for and of a nation, is, 
under proper restrictions, likewise true of a large private estab- 
lishment, partaking of a public character, like this one of A. Z.; 
hence, the absurd report of the silly people about him, will not 
gain any proselytes among people of sense." 

We. — " We perfectly agree with you, friend Manager, and bid 
you farewell." 

9. Beturned from our excursion to the mammoth store, let us 
now count up the facts it contains for us, which, by analogy, may 
become of use to us in the construction and development, as well 
as application, of the mighty classification that is to encycle into 
one grand whole, all the things in the universe, in such manner, that 
every sane human intellect shall, at one and the same time, be 
both induced and compelled to acknowledge and accept the same 
as its proper own. a.) Before we got into the store, we discovered 
the building wherein it is contained, from a considerable distance, 
by its tremendous size, and unique but unitary construction. Z>.) 
In the arrangements within, of the shelf- work, as well as of other 
stationary fixtures, as also of the scales, balances, and meters of all 
sorts and uses, we discovered a display of extraordinary ingenuity 
both of design and execution, simplifying the operations and facili- 
tating the objects of the establishment, in a wonderful degree ; and, 
as they all, are the result of human thought, they solicit our closest 
attention, as it may disclose to us therein the display of traits of, 
and truths in, man's intellect, that heretofore have, as yet, never 
been distinctly mapped down, c.) The singular and simple fact, 
that we, just at the moment we needed them, could not get, in this 
immense store, the few articles we wanted, needed, and called for, 
has for man a significance, and proclaims the same with a voice, 
18 



212 THE TEMPLE OF TEUTH. 

that may be, and is, heard, at the four corners of the planet. For, 
stentorian-tongued it shouts into our ears : 1.) That if we possess 
all the world's goods, or all the tJwughts, facts, and truths of science 
and wisdom, but for want of order, arrangement, or classification, can 
not find what we hunt for in the moment of pressing need ; the absence 
thereby caused of an article seemingly so trifling as a needle or pin, 
or of a ilwught of no extraordinary nature, may, under specific con- 
tingencies, subject us to great exterior losses, and even cause the loss of 
human life. For many a victim of either physical wounds and ills, 
or of despair and despondency, might have been saved, if, at a suita- 
ble moment, before the fatal catastrophe, that scattered its reason or 
life, one certain medical remedy, or a hriglit and hopeful idea had 
been applied,, or exhibited, to its suffering body or mental hen, capable 
of dispelling the pain, or dismal gloom, that engulfed it into its vortex. 
2.) Hence the absolute need of order, classification, and indexation 
of all our physical as well as mental means, that is, wares and truths, 
so that we are always able to find, each separate article when re- 
quired. For he, who possesses all creation, but can not find, at the 
moment he needs it, a certain small article, is not one whit better 
off at that moment, than the most indigent of his neighbors ; for, all the 
diamonds of the Brazils and gold of the world, have in themselves 
no power to remove a simple but painful toothache, or remove a 
burning tJwught driving the mind to madness. cZ.) The reply of the 
Manager to our inquiry after the person of A. Z., being a model of 
close and acute reasoning, has lifted into prominent relief, some of 
the most important facts and laws connected with the operations of 
the intellect. Among them are : 1.) The presence of an effect, is 
absolute proof of the existence of its cause. 2.) The quality of the 
effect is indicative of a corresponding Quality in the cause. 3.) Mind, 
being ever invisible and inaccessible to the senses, the greatness and 
power, as well as wisdom and goodness, of the human intellect and 
heart, can only be proved, to, and displayed before, the eyes of his 
fellow-men, by the individual'' s practical deeds and performances. 4.) 
Of a countless number of facts, the laws of time and space, make it 
partly impossible, and partly difficult, for men, to obtain sensual testi- 
mony. No man living after the age of another, can sensually ever 
know any thing of those dying before he was; and only the very 
smallest number of people in any age, do ever get to see the person 



FORM AND SPIRIT OF THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 213 

of those men, whose name, fame, and exploits may be as familiar 
to every tongue of such time, as every day household words. 

10. a.) Now, before we begin attempting to sketch the outlines 
and main features of the grand system of classification, which is to 
supply an absolute want, for all time to come, ever felt by all sane 
and sound thinkers, but never yet heretofore supplied in a scientific 
form, — not because this our sketch is already now, in itself, con- 
summately perfect, — but simply because its structure contains the 
germ and aptitude of never-ceasing, ever-improving ■perfectibility, 
without causing any derangement of the parts, and in the construc- 
tion as originally composed : it will be necessary for us, to bring, 
by an all- con verting, universal generalization, all things real and 
possible under one uniform denomination, so that, like the merchant 
calling all things within his store by the name of ivares : so we 
must find some appropriate name, that may fitly apply to every indi- 
vidual or collective thing in creation, that, in anywise, and manner, 
may ever claim & place, anywhere within the shelves of our knowl- 
edge, b.) The query before us, therefore, is : if commencing with 
the smallest atom, and progressing upward, we place all things 
existing or thinkable around us, into one all-compassing cycle, — so 
that the ideas of all, with their intermediates, from the atom to 
islands, continents, globes, satellites, suns, solar systems, to the en- 
tire universe, — and from the infusorial animalcule, mite, elephant, 
whale, man, nature, mind, matter, creation, up to Deity itself, shall, 
with all and every thing, be embraced within our cycle : what name 
is there to be found in language, fit and proper to be alike applied to 
all these subjects of thought or existence, indiscriminately, so that, 
such name, doing justice to all, and injustice to none, — be as expres- 
sive of the main feature in all of them, from the atom to tliought and 
intellect, and from the infusoria or mite to the glorious Supreme 
Cause itself ? 

c.) Answer : All things and ideas existing, or possible to exist, 
from the atom up to all others above-named, or indicated as present 
in our supposed all-embracing cycle, — have one general feature in 
common with one another, and that is : that all of them are capa- 
ble of either positive or negative action ; for, even the most minute 
atom is capable of inert resistance, the capacity inherent in the 
lowest form of matter ; while all living beings, thought, mind, and 



214 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

the glorious Creator himself, are ever engaged in 'positive action. 
Now, all sort of action, no matter whether negative or positive, is 
as an effect produced by a cause ; and every such cause capable of 
producing any effect at all, proves itself thereby to be a force or 
power, as alone in it subsists the capacity of production of any thing 
whatsoever. Hence, wherever there is no force or power of any 
sort, there is neither action, production, or existence; for, existence 
and subsistence in any degree, is force of one sort and degree or 
another. And, therefore, the name of force or power is a suitable and 
proper name for all things, from the atom to the universe, and from 
the mite to God himself ; and the difference in their variety, extent, 
intensity, and degree, will furnish to intellect the meter and indi- 
dicator to what place in, or upon, the grand shelf- work (or catego- 
ries), of absolute classification, every one thereof is, per se, entitled. 
11. a.) In every process of thought upon any subject, there are 
various ways and methods of finally reaching the end in view ; but 
among all the modes possible, there can be but one, which is. the best 
of the whole ; and if we are so fortunate to hit upon it, right at our 
start, we shall save labor, time, and headwork, inasmuch as such 
best method is nothing else, nor less, than a straight, and hence the 
sliortest, line to the point aimed at. Having, by our last generaliza- 
tion, now reduced all and the most heterogeneous things, from the 
finite atom to infinity itself, to one endless series of perfectly homo- 
geneous objects, termed forces, presenting the most multiform differ- 
ence in Jcind, degree, and extent, — the first thing we now need, may 
be named the form that is to inclose the shelf-work of our projected 
classification. For, at a closer inspection, it will be discovered, that 
that, which is named the form of a thing, is the very tiling which, 
inclosing an indefinite multiplicity of parts within itself, combines 
them all, by and through itself, into absolute oneness, or a unitary whole. 
Thus, the form of a human person, incloses into one individual 
unity, all the countless individual parts, forces, and abilities, physical, 
psychical, and intellectual, that are, in anywise and manner, apper- 
taining to the man ; thus, the store-building of the merchant, A Z, 
is the form inclosing the fixtures, shelf- work and contents of his 
vast and admirable establishment into one ; and thus, we finally 
have, in Chap, xi, \ 5, >-, in our analysis of sight, found that abso- 
lute or boundless space, is the form, inclosing the somewhat larger, 



FORM AND SPIRIT OF THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 215 

and more wonderful establishment of this entire universe to one 
ever-combined whole, b.) Now, one might suppose, that absolute 
space having no bounds, and being the inclosing form of the sen- 
sually perceptible universe, might likewise answer as the inclosing 
form for the radical system of classification, now under considera- 
tion. To this suggestion, we have to reply : Space, though bound- 
less, being absolutely immovable, and hence, entirely passive, is, 
before the intellect only an idea, and on account of its entire passive- 
ness merely a negative force; whence it follows, that the active, 
thinking mind, even of the single individual man, is a force superior 
to this space, as it is not active only, but actually producingly crea- 
tive. Hence space, the proven inferior, can not serve as the inclos- 
ing form, of a whole, — wherein man, its demonstrated superior, 
is to constitute an integral part, c.) Further, a thing can not serve 
as an inclosure or form of another, wherewith it presents no resem- 
blance or affinity whatever. Space has none with joy or grief, love 
or hatred, virtue or crime, wisdom or madness, heaven or hell, — as 
it remains entirely indifferent to, and totally unaffected by, either. 
Space, further, is a stranger to the origination of things, even of those 
it incloses. The mind of man is conscious that it did not make 
itself; it knows, with a like certainty, that it has not produced 
nature; it is no less sure, that nature has neither produced the 
human being, nor given existence to itself ; hence, man's intellect, 
both in its own and nature's name, until duly solved, incessantly 
reiterates the query : " Where do we come from ? who, and what, is 
the cause, of which we both are the effect ?" d.) Now that, whereby 
individual man is superior to space, whereby he controls nature, and 
has, like a creative divinity, and vice-regent of supreme power, 
continued its creative process on earth, embellishing nature, and 
ennobling the aspect of the globe, all over its vast surface, — is his 
thinking, super-sensual, and hence, super-natural intellect, — before 
whose majestic forum, boundless space and powerful nature appear 
each in the compressed shape of one thought or idea, e.) Man, exist- 
ing on earth, in a specific number of individuals, probably, at this 
moment, in the neighborhood of a thousand millions, nearly equally 
divided between the two jointly procreative sexes, which number 
are the children of a smaller number of parents, the grandchildren of 
a still smaller number of grandparents,T=-and thus diminisJung the 



216 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

number of their ancestors, as you trace them backward into the dim 
ages of the hoary past, the whole number (regardless of occasional 
interruptions to the regularity of the process from easily conceiva- 
ble causes), must eventually, by inevitable, mathematical necessity, 
come down, and terminate, in one single pair of male and female 
human beings. /.) Geology, a branch of human science, born so 
recently, that it may almost fitly be called the babe of man's intel- 
lectual children, — has, nevertheless, in some of its proportions, 
grown up so rapidly, and, as it were, precociously, — that it is 
already able to render us some essential service, on the present 
occasion, by its decisive and highly intelligent testimony upon the 
following important point. Geology, by a string of collective 
facts, too numerous here to detail, is able to demonstrate, beyond 
the possibility of successful denial : 1.) That this our globe has 
been the subject of a series of violently subverting elemental revo- 
lutions, by each one of which, the pre-existing aspect of its surface 
was not only, more or less, entirely changed, but its flora (vegeta- 
tion), and fauna (animal domain), totally destroyed. 2.) That, after 
each such perceptible revolution was fully consummated, vegeta- 
tion and life in forms more perfect than those preceding, took their 
place. 3.) That the conditions absolutely requisite for man to exist, 
were not present on this globe, until after the subsidence of the last of 
these revolutions, which left its surface and the conditions thereon, 
rudimentally, what they are at present. 4.) That hence, as man's 
species could not exist, on earth, anterior to its last revolution, the 
certainty that he did not exist, before it, is proven by the additional 
fact, — that his remains, whenever found in a fossil state, at no time 
have yet presented any determinate criteria, that he ever did exist 
in any other than this last or present still enduring period. But 
this last fact is by no means absolutely necessary to our forthcom- 
ing argument ; for, although there is no rational probability that 
man ever did exist in any of the earlier periods, it would make no 
difference under heaven, if he had existed any given number of 
thousands of years earlier, than now supposed, — because the time 
of his first appearance on earth, has, at all events, certain fixed 
limits, that can not be overstepped. For, there are facts, to prove, 
that at a certain period, the earth was in a condition, wherein the 
existence of man upon it, was an absolute impossibility, g.) And here, 



FORM AND SPIRIT OF THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 217 

we have landed at the point for which we steered. For, as in the 
sub-paragraph preceding the last (in e), we find the race of man 
reduced to one primitive pair, we have now, in /, above, come to 
a time, when and where, there was no spot on earth Jit for man to 
stand upon and live. Now, then, that was the time, when, uncon- 
ditionally the race of man had no existence yet. Nature knows 
nothing of purely creative power or its processes. The law and 
mode it obeys, to preserve the individual species of beings existing 
within it, is that of propagation in the various methods of generation. 
This law, nature obeys blindfold, without knowing any thing of the 
secrets concealed in its miraculous operations. Hence, the conjoint 
experience of the human race, since its existence on earth, has 
never seen nature produce any new thing or species, but only continue 
the existing genera in the generative mode. This statement will 
remain an unimpaired universal fact, if even the much contested 
result of Sir Andrew Cross's famous galvano-electrical experiment, 
claiming the production of a species of insect, not fully alike to any 
now known to Entomology, should prove true. For, if a fact, it is 
one in which the human intellect had a greater agency than nature 
itself, — by using its own, to combine the forces in nature in new 
modes.* If nature had ever possessed and exercised creative power, it 
never could have lost it, and would possess and exercise the same yet 
to this very hour. 

12. a.) Now, that, which is to inclose, as the greatest of all objects 
possible, our projected system of universal classification, as its ever- 
living form, must hence, also, in the whole series of our forces, be 
a power, not only greater than any single one among them, but, 
analogous to all-embracing space, be greater than the whole aggregate 
of the entire series together. It must, hence, not only be a being of 
life, but its life must also be that of the highest hind, discoverable 
anywhere in the series ; and as all the less is contained in the more, 
the inferior in the superior, the finite in the infinite, it must cotem- 
poraneously contain and inclose, eo ipso, the entire series, with all 
its appurtenances within itself, and be thus seat, source, and cause 
of their existence, b.) The creative power, as now practically 
known to man, exists in the thinking intellect, dwelling in the two 

* These interesting experiments are reported in " Vestiges of Creation" and elsewhere. 



218 THE TEMPLE OF TEUTH. 

entirely differently organized sexes of man, the male and female. 
In the first, it shows itself connected with a strength of desire and 
thirst after knowledge, truth, and wisdom, that shun no obstacle to 
reach the goal ; in the latter, it manifests itself coupled with a ten- 
derness and affection, truly divine, reaching and displaying in the 
climax of a mother's undying, godlike love, a degree of heroism, 
of which all male heroes need not be ashamed to take lessons. 
The invisible intellect of man and of woman, does each know its 
own self, next, one the other, and finally, all other things whatso- 
ever, by thought or idea only, and in no other way ; as all real knowl- 
edge is seeing or beholding things in thoughts of the mind. For, no 
exterior thing enters the mind, but only the thought thereof. For, 
as soon as by sleep, or forgetting or abstraction of attention, you 
remove the thought of a thing out of the intellect's presence and 
sight, the thing itself also, is, for the time being, entirely gone. 
Hence, ideas or thoughts are not only living forces, but they are the 
very eyes, by and through which the mind looks into the heart of 
things. Ideas are, therefore, the forces that cause man to dance 
from exuberance of joy, or rave from madness by pain and grief, — in 
short, they can set the world in a blaze, have done so more than 
once ; and will, beyond all doubt, do it again, c.) Every finite form 
on earth carries upon itself some lasting evidence of its origin, sym- 
bolical of a higher significance. Thus, the human child (like all 
the mammalia), when born, is yet fastened to its mother by the 
umbilical cord, which, after cut, leaves still forever its irremovable 
mark in the navel. A similar spot, if not removed by filing, grind- 
ing, or polishing, may be seen in every piece of casting of iron or 
other metal, denoting the point at which the molten mineral was 
poured into the mould. Corresponding to the umbilical cord, there 
is a something mentally similar to it existing in the consciousness of 
every human being, assuring man of his connection with the cause of 
which he knows himself to be the effect, not only, but still also to a 
great extent, the subservient instrument. As long as the native 
innocence of heart, and the honest simplicity of the intellect, have not 
been violently damaged and injured in man, his conviction of the 
existence of that cause, and his knowledge of its nature, springing 
from his said connection therewith, are not less sure and clear, 
than those he entertains of his own self. He may injure and 



FORM AND SPIRIT OP THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 219 

damage both, to a degree, as to render him disinclined as well as 
unable to reason and judge correctly, in these transcendingly impor- 
tant premises. 

13. a.) The unknown myriads of millions of normal beings, ex- 
isting upon earth from the first solitary pair, up to the one thousand 
millions of the present hour, were all alike conscious and certain, of 
having been produced by an adequate cause, the same not being they 
themselves. And perceiving themselves in all main features essen- 
tially alike, but yet seeing in every single individual some peculiar 
gift, wherein, if properly developed, he or she would excel all others : 
they saw that the common cause of all, being the source and centre 
of all the perfect and different gifts, evidently thus present, piece- 
wise, in each single individual of this countless number of men, 
would, in itself, regardless of all other considerations, thereby neces- 
sarily appear as a being of such surpassing attributes of all-sided 
perfection, as to rivet the attention and admiration of all intellects 
upon itself, as soon as they should have obtained one single clear 
sight thereof, b.) In Chap, v, § 13-17, and Chap, xxv, § 2, a-d, 
we have shown that every progress of man, thus far accomplished, 
was effected by realizing the ideas of inventors and discoverers. This 
proves that ideas are creative, since no other sort of creativeness has 
taken place upon earth since man's existence thereon. Now, then, 
as all human intellects see all things which they see, in no other way 
than in their ideas thereof, as, hence, one intellect may inclose within 
itself an indefinite, and does inclose a certain number of such ideas, 
all of which, being like the mind itself, living forces, among which 
there is one greatest, necessarily encompassing all the rest ; and with 
them, that of its own self ; we have herein come to that being or 
force, which, like space, inclosing all nature and its bodies, en cycles 
all intellects, forces, spirits, beings and things whatsoever, and thus 
existing in the very pinnacle of every individual human consciousness, is 
that supreme, absolute, universal spiritual soil, in which all intellects 
cotemporaneously have their common mental root, c.) Perceiving 
this ubiquitous living thought * thus present in all minds, as well as 
things, inclosing as a greater, and boundlessly active power, all nature 
and all space : men have called it the all-surrounding, omnipresent 

* Schiller calls God "the living, highest Thought." 

19 



220 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

God. Hence Paul, the Apostle (Acts, xvii, 28), says : " In him 
we live, and move, and have our being." Hence, Marlebrancbe based 
his system on the formula : " We see all things in God." Hence, 
convinced that their own existence was not more a proof of itself, 
than of the being of such a God, — the nations of all times and 
zones, have, in one mode or another, worshiped a supreme being. 
Hence, even a Voltaire, the scoffer and reviler of all revealed reli- 
gion, is compelled to exclaim : 

" Tout annonce d'un dieu l'eternelle existence, 
On ne peut le voir, on ne peut l'ignorer, 
La voix de l'univers nous preche sa puissance, 
Et la voix de nos cceurs nous dit qu'il faut l'adorer."* 

[ TRANSLATION. ] 

"All things a God's eternal existence teach; 
One can not see, nor him ignore ; 
All worlds' great voice his power does preach, 
And our hearts' own voice bids us adore." 

d.) And hence, lastly, but by no means leastly, a man whose name 
sounds far more terrible, than even that of the great high-priest of 
modem unbelief, namely, no less a personage than that of the 
bloody-handed Robespierre, had openly to give his testimony in 
favor of the existence of a supreme being. For, after the revolu- 
tionary leaders of France, for several years past, intoxicated by 
fanatical and bloody Atheism, had openly avowed themselves un- 
believers in a supreme cause and the immortality of tlie human soul : 
the original impetus of which torrent, Kobespierre felt either no 
inclination, but more probably, had then yet no sufficient power 
to stem, but concluded to abide his own time. That time, he sup- 
posed, had come in the early part of 1794, when he concluded to 
restore some sort of public worship in France. In his opening 
speech upon the subject, before the French Convention, he made 
the memorable declaration : that the idea of a God, was a thought 
of so happy and. fruitive a nature, " that if not already existing, 
it ought to be invented." f e.) And to cap the climax, James 
the Apostle, asserts bluntly, that even the convicts of heaven's 
penitentiary, are sharers in men's universal belief ; for he says, in 

* flenriade. t " S'il n'existait, il faudrait l'inventer." 



FORM AND SPIRIT OF THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 221 

his Epistle, chapter ii, 19, positively : " Thou believest that there 
is one God ; thou doest well : the devils also believe, and — 
tremble." 

14. a.) Since the above, and our mode of proving God's ex- 
istence, as summed up in sub-§ h of \ 13, was written down, we 
find, to our delight, that DesCartes, the great restorer of modern 
philosophy, has discovered and applied in his own individual case, 
the very argument to prove God's existence, which we deduced 
from the conscious intellects of all sane men. For this great and 
mighty thinker says : " We necessarily conclude from this alone, that 
because I exist and have the idea of a most perfect being, tliat is to 
say, of God, (lie existence of God is most evidently demonstrated.* 
Now, as this is the voice of all sound and unperverted intellects, 
who, as long as in that natural state, are as certain of God's ex- 
istence and being, as the happy child is of that of his parents and 
his own ; we have therein actually the unanimous, universally co- 
inciding testimony of the whole human race, in the shape of these 
many demonstrations, each convincing its individual, and thereby 
increasing the strength of conviction in the whole mass, through 
that mighty and best portion thereof, who have preserved their 
qualification to be competent witnesses in the case ; excluding only 
the villain and criminal, who by disinclination and false volition, 
and the imbecile and idiot who by mental defect and incapacity, 
are disqualified, being either unwilling or unable, clearly to per- 
ceive and honestly to state the most important of all truths. b.~) 
As truth is universal, absolute, boundless, all-ruling, and error sec- 
tional, relative, contracted, and schismatic, it is not the office of 
truth to propagate its own empire by separately attacking every indi- 
vidual system of error, that in one way or other has obtained foot- 
hold and currency in the world ; but rather, like the glorious orb 
of day, to pour its copious, all-illuming billows of light simulta- 
neously into the entire womb of darkness, and thus producing, at 
once, an omnipresent daylight, penetrating by its own nature into 
every gloomy cellar, nook, and corner, wherever there exists any 
aperture for it to enter, c.) There is one exception to this rule, 
namely : when the entire essence, force, and power of error and 

* Meditation iii, sur l'existence de Dieu, p. 69. 



222 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

darkness in existence, coupled with insanity or brute force, have 
become jointly concentrated into some corporealized system or 
body, which the mere diffused rays of scattered daylight are only 
able to show and make visible in its true dismal hideousness and 
deformed nature to all eyes, but can neither melt, dissolve, or cause 
to evaporate, since that can only be effected by concentrating the 
whole force of the light's living rays into the focal centre, as it were, 
of some burning mirror ; which, when duly directed upon the in- 
durated opaque object, will decompose and volatilize it into the 
form of gaseous nonentity, were it as hard as adamant, the crystal- 
lized black carbon itself. As a case of that nature, concentrating in 
a manner, all things opposed to light, truth, and the welfare and 
great end and aim of mankind into a nutshell ; but inclosing all 
and as many, nay more and greater, evils for man, as ever did Pan- 
dora's famous box of old, presses itself, while contemplating our 
present subject, within the cycle of our vision, it becomes our duty 
to direct the whole focus of solar truth, upon the gory monster, and 
let the mirror's consuming central flash strike its hydra head, until 
burned up into harmless cinders. 

15. a.) As now we have proved that God exists as a living idea 
in all men, whose original normal nature has not been cruelly per- 
verted and corrupted ; having shown that he is the greatest of all 
actual and possible forces, possessing in himself collectively, in a 
consummate degree, whatever of any perfect trait is found singly, in 
each individual being ; we have in him, as Kant calls him, " ens 
realissimum," the supremest reality, or most perfect, most real and 
actual among all beings. b.~) Hence, it follows, that, in proportion 
as this divine idea in man, being God's manifestation in each indi- 
vidual self, bears sway and rule in the man over the rest of his 
forces, in the same degree such man is godlike, perfect, and thinks 
and acts divinely, so that it may be said of him, as one of old : 
" BeJwld an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.'''' John i, 47. Or, 
also, as more recently he has been defined : " An honest man's the 
noblest work of God."* c.) If the honest man, in whom God dwells 
and rules, is God's noblest, most perfect work, its opposite, the 
man in whom the idea of God has no longer any influence ; whose 

* Pope's Essay on Man. 



FORM AND SPIRIT OF THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 223 

being has become the seat of falsehood and deception, must, of 
necessity, be : " the meanest, vilest of mankind," * and his ends and 
aims, and modes and habits of action, be of a most godless, and 
hence horrific nature. d.~) For such man is intellectually in the 
same condition, with that of the blind man, who loses his eyesight. 
The latter has no longer any outward sun to illume creation, and 
enable him correctly to perceive its objects and their relations ; 
and the former is in the more terrible condition, that the central 
light within him, alone, capable of showing and guiding him in the 
correct use of all his forces, has set, leaving him in utter darkness ; 
while his forces, uncontrolled by any superior-unitary power, are, by 
the wildest, most terrific anarchy, continually whirled into a more 
fearful state of chaos. In Chap, xviii, § 20, a, and elsewhere, we have 
stated, that there are three main classes of men, there named, 
saints, sinners, and criminals, which terms signify also wise men, 
fools, and raving maniacs.^ Man can not sanctify himself ; but as 
far as he suffers and indulges God to rule him, in that degree God 
purifies and sanctifies him, which is one and the same thing with 
making him a sage, a saint, or divinely acting being. The sinner 
may be termed a fool, being such, as attempting to carry water on 
both shoulders ; trying one moment to enlist in the service of 
heaven, and the very next joining the ranks of hell. The criminal 
is a raving maniac, in whom brute appetency and force ruling as 
a beast of prey, and controlling the intellect to carry out the in- 
tensely selfish desires, which, when fully excited, make him a 
fiend incarnate, hardly less dangerous and cruel, than any disem- 
bodied devil could be, whence Ooethe, perceiving modern unbeliev- 
ing, self-imagined illuminism, chuckle at its having exploded, as it 
thinks, the old idea of an opposing principle, takes occasion, with 
the most destructive sarcasm, to spoil its rosy dream by reminding 
it : " Den Bozsen sind sie los, die Bodsen sind geblieben. ,} l d.) Saint, 
sinner, and criminal, co-existing on earth, in human society, as 
beings in human shape, with, and acting and reacting upon, one 
another, attempt each to proselyte the other, or drawing him into 
his own cycle. For man is a social being, needs company, and 
when finding such as he can join with a will, he desires to make 

* Ibid. t Corresponding in idea, with Plato's classification of men. 

X " The eoU one they got rid of, the evil ones remain."— Faust. 



224 THE TEMPLE OF TEUTH. 

it as large, numerous, and strong, as if he were that association 
himself. A society of men, of whom each one meditates the 
destruction of all the rest, could not exist long, as their earnest joint 
desire, would soon realize the same, by leaving only one, perhaps 
even not one, individual, to tell the bloody tale. Hence an endur- 
ing state or society of murderers is an impossibility, as suicidally 
it destroys itself, e.) God is creator and preserver of what he pro- 
duces ; the destroying murderer is his exact opposing counterpart. 
The murderer, when an innocent child, was a divine being, "whose 
angel or spirit saw God's face in heaven" (Matt, xviii, 10), as long 
as he remained in that guiltless condition. What is it that has 
flung him out of it ? "We find an easy, simple, and natural answer 
to this query in John viii, 44, where it is stated that : " The first 
or original liar was the first murderer" Well, if the liar was a 
murderer at that time, he must bear that mark upon him still ; let 
us take a closer look at him. Man absolutely knows that he has 
not made himself, and is constantly, in a miraculous, to him incom- 
prehensible manner, preserved in existence, by the wonderful being 
that created him, who continues to heap blessing after blessing upon 
him. Man knows that being to be his legitimate sovereign ; knows 
himself to owe him implicit allegiance and fidelity ; as he actually 
is God-'s bona fide property, in the most comprehensive sense of the 
term. In an unfortunate moment, misled by interior or exterior 
temptation, or both conjoined, he permits himself to be seduced 
into the commission of some act, which he knows to be wrong, and 
opposed to God's sovereign rights and holy law. That deed then, 
so far as it goes, is : 1.) An incipient rebellion against the proprietor 
of the universe ; 2.) An assertion and usurpation of rights on the 
part of the creature, as opposed to the sovereign privileges of the 
creating riglvtf id owner, utterly unfounded ; and, 3.) A poisoned, sui- 
cidal stab, leading, if not speedily counteracted, by powerful reme- 
dial agencies, in a very brief time, to the total moi'al death and utter 
annihilation of the creature's innocence. 

16. a.) Here then we have in that one single act, three distinct 
principles of transgression compressed into one solitary deed ; the 
real commencing of which is when man begins to believe the lie of 
the tempter, that the commission of sin contains a concealed happi- 
ness, whereby men get to be like gods. (Gen. iii, 5). Embracing 



FORM AND SPIRIT OF THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 225 

and believing that lie, and thus becoming one with it, man thereby 
makes himself a liar ; and feeling himself endowed with the priv- 
ilege of choice between right and wrong, he cheats himself by the 
lying hope, that he may commit such sin, with impunity, and having 
no penalty to pay, in the shape of ulterior consequences, from the 
laws of nature, reason, and God. Thus making himself a complete 
liar in theory, he now goes boldly to commit the act in practice, 
which, toward God, as it robs him of his rights of ownership and 
assails his sovereign immunities at one and the same time, is an act 
of highway robbery and insurrectionary rebellion ; while toward him- 
self it is moral suicide, which, before God's law, is murder of inno- 
cency. Thus, then, we see that the liar is a robber, rebel, suicide, 
and murderer in his primary criminal deed, b.) Gerhard Ter 
Steegen, a man so much and really after Christ's own heart (that 
Prof. H. Young Stilling (Goethe's bosom friend), with truth, says 
of him : " That since the days of tlie Apostles all Christendom can 
show no man, who has done as much for the restoration of true and 
pure religion as G. Ter Steegen"); writes, in a letter to a pious lady : 
" Dear Sister, do not become frightened at what I tell you, for it is the 
simple truth, God is so intimately conjoined with man, that when 
you commit sin, you force God to commit sin with you." Is it a won- 
der, therefore, that sin, vice, and crime, are things, so unutterably 
terrible, and inseparably connected with consequences of a nature 
equally appalling ?" Man, however, seldom commits sin alone, as 
usually he has not only more or less human company engaged 
therein with him, but always entangles also a smaller or larger 
number as the designed victims thereof. Among these latter are 
often youthful people as yet in complete possession of their native, 
childlike innocence. The entrapping and seduction of such inno- 
cents to the commission of sin and crime, is an act more heinous, so 
far as the injury to the victim is concerned, than physical murder 
of the bodily life itself. Hence, to every one of such seducers of 
innocence, by bad example, or actual infernal design, it is, Matt. 
xviii, 6, proclaimed : " It were better for him that a millstone were 
hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." 
c.) As there is nowhere absolute rest or standing still in the domain 
of existence, the transgressor must either repent and reform, ox progress 



226 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

onward and sink deeper in the awful labyrinth of criminality. 
While in the tide of success and prosperity, the voice of offended 
conscience is drowned by the intoxication of sensual enjoyment, 
and dissipation, or the noisy clamor of action ; and any stray beam 
of a thought, monitory of " retributive justice," is set off, and 
rendered inoperative by another, of an atheistical nature, since " the 
wish is father to the tiiought." But there is a time in the destiny of 
all men, when the measure of their own action, be it good or evil, 
has reached, as it were, an ultimate, where a new part or act of the 
thrilling drama is to begin, which has been noticed by the eye of 
genius of all ages. That time has come when the offended God 
within man, no longer permits the sinning criminal to look with 
his inner eye at any thing else, than upon the horrifying turpitude 
of his past life, and is thereby appalled, as if it were, the head of 
some terrifying Medusa. When that awful moment has arrived, 
the outer eye is no longer delighted by looking at h'ngly power and 
a crown purchased, as now perceived, at a price infinitely too dear. 
Hence Macbeth, when no one is outwardly present to accuse him, 
of the bloody deed, performed in a dark night, unknown to all the 
world, through the hands of hired assassins, seeing inly, engrafted 
on his prior guilt, the gory head of the murdered Banquo, and him- 
self as the real murderer, is forced to say, as if seeing the slain 
victim with his outer eye: "Thou canst not say I did it V So, 
Lady Macbeth, his terrible spouse, before the murder of King 
Duncan (mainly instigated by her boundless ambition), hard as 
flint, has no eye now any longer for the power and regal splendor, 
thus bought by murder. The only thing she now can see, any- 
where, in the wide universe, keeping her eye chained like the 
charming glance of the fabled basilisk, is that single spot of blood upon 
her hand, got when she wiped up the murdered King's gore from 
the floor, long washed off outwardly, but being indelible inwardly, 
she always perceives yet on the hand, where no soap and water can 
remove it ; whence her reiterated exclamation : " Out damned 
spot /" That is the point and the time when the pangs and tor- 
tures of the hell within have brought the polluted wretch to the 
brink of insanity, or the despair of self-destruction, each forcing, 
with an energy, irresistible as destiny, upon him or her, the over- 



FORM AND 8PIRIT OF THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 227 

powering conviction : " Das Leben ist der Queter Hoeclistes nicht ; der 
Uebel Qroestes aber ist die Schuld !" * Thus showing the beginning 
of the final doom, to which the lie, with its twin-brothers robbery 
and murder, eventually and inevitably lead their victims individu- 
ally ; corresponding as, ere-long, will be seen, with that, to which 
they drag them collectively. 

17. a.) All the wrongs committed by man in any shape and de- 
gree, against man, his brother, or God, his creator, sovereign, and 
father, are thus practical and actualized lies, differing only by 
variety and modification, as to the degree of deadliness, in the venom 
of their essence, the ugly monstrosity of their form, and the size 
and extent, to which the cycle of their hugely embracing destruc- 
tiveness expands, b.) All of them are practical atheism, denying, 
by deed, the existence, and defying by fact the autJwrity of, and 
using in the performance, the goods, chattels, means, faculties, and 
forces created by, and eternally belonging to, God, for acting therewith 
repugnantly to His very, threefoldly declared holy nature and will, 
and thus forcing God, as defined by Ter Steegen, to commit sin and 
wrong with the raving sinner, c.) The men making, by deed and 
action thus liars of themselves, may fitly be said to form three 
distinct classes : 1.) Timid and weak sinners, who believe in, and 
acknowledge, God's existence and authority, and deplore their de- 
linquent acts. 2.) Hypocrites, who to deceive and decoy their 
victims, feign and pretend, to a belief in God, and in secret, act as 
if there were none. 3.) Open atheists, with more than ordinary 
intellectual daring and infatuated licentiousness, who, upon the pre- 
tense, of what they call their knowledge of nature and things, boldly 
deny God's existence, as an intelligent supreme cause, and assert all 
things to be composed, of the one tiling they call matter, all the 
aggregate of which they term nature, the same, they say, being ruled 
by a blind necessity. 

18. a.) As the seeing man needs no foreign demonstration of the 
existence of the glowing sun, so the mind and heart wherein God 
is present, need no exterior testimony from other men to prove the 
same, or just as little as to prove his own being and existence. (See 



* " Of boons, the highest is not life ; but of evils all, guilt is the greatest." Schiller, 
Bride of Messina 



228 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

Chap, xxi, §§ 1 and 2). Basing ourselves, in § 13, upon this ever- 
lastingly, immovable rock, we deemed it superfluous to adduce any 
additional light from the countless glittering stars, surrounding us 
on all sides, as the glorious daylight from the one all-sliining sun, 
could thereby not be increased in its transcending lustre. Hence, as 
the most vehement denial, of the poor blind man, losing his eye- 
sight in early infancy, so that he has no recollection and knowledge 
of the nature of daylight, and his violent protestations that, be- 
cause he can not see it, there is no sun, and its existence for him 
incredible and impossible, can only excite the pity, and if persisted in, 
hardly more than rouse the smiling contempt of the seeing man : 
so the refusal of the materialist and atheist to believe in, and their 
denial of, the existence of a supreme intelligent cause, can only be 
regarded in the same light and degree, by those, who know God 
within themselves, b.) As their unwillingness renders materialist 
and atheist incompetent, so their want of experience and actual 
knowledge in the premises, contained in their very assertions, makes 
them unfit and unable to give any testimony whatsoever, in relation to 
the great question, which, thus frivolously, they assume the temerity, 
to decide in the negative, in the face of nearly all mankind, nature, 
and reason, not mentioning religion, as they refuse to acknowl- 
edge its voice, c.) If, therefore, we shall now step aside, as it 
were, from our own strait-forward course, and by a few main strokes, 
demolish the airy building, which, for a long time past, these 
maniacs have inhabited, making all the world, somehow or other, 
believe, that it was an impregnable fort, bomb-and-shell-proof as 
well as inaccessible to storming, sapping and mining ; it is not done 
from the consideration that its existence and continuance, as the 
diametrical negative, of our own absolutely established positive, 
could exert upon the latter, the least possible harming influence, 
which it never can ; but merely because in several places, we have 
indicated to idealism, that we shall give it redress and restore to it 
the rights wrongfully possessed by a robber usurper ; next, because 
that same evil-doer is guilty of crimes, not yet duly, and generally 
enough, known to the world at large ; and, thirdly, because if left 
to himself, he may, the very next moment, begin to deluge a whole 
world with a flood of human gore, as heretofore he has, at various 
times, done with certain places, localities and countries. 



FORM AND SPIRIT OP THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 229 

19. a.) The first main stroke, by which we shall, with one single 
blow, demolish the entire hydra-head of the famous theory of this 
braggadocio-bully, materialistic Atheism and atheistic Materialism, 
will consist in showing, with mathematical clearness to an astound- 
ing world : 1.) That a thing, material, or substance, such as the ma- 
terialists imagine, represent and claim that, which they term : mat- 
ter to be : is a something that has not only no existence anywhere, 
not even in their own brains, but its very idea is an impossibility, 
because excluded, as a thought, from the human intellect, by the 
three highest (and therein by all the) laws of the human mind. 
2.) That the very supposition of the possibility of such a pretended 
matter, proves the absence of reasoning and reflection in the intel- 
lect entertaining an idea so crude, to a degree, bordering so closely 
upon insanity, as to cover the boundary-line, or evincing the capa- 
city of discrimination in such low grade, whereof Homer some- 
where, and Goethe after him, have said : " Mit cler Dummheit 
richten seTbsi dei Qoztter nichts aus ;" indicating, that with the stub- 
bornness of stupidity, even the gods fight in vain. And, 3.) we 
shall mate good the above, beside our own conclusive arguments 
thereon, by the explicit and unequivocal testimony forced from 
their own mouth, b.) If that matter, as those men claim it, exists 
anywhere, and is the unitary and sole cause and source of all 
things existing, it is their business to point it out, where it is, and 
define the thought connected with the word, with scientific exact- 
ness, therein showing : what it is. Thus far, they have used and 
have smuggled this word through the world, without ever showing 
the idea purporting to correspond with the same. Now, we charge, 
charge boldly, and shall show, that this very word of matter, is like 
a counterfeit bank bill, of which there is nowhere the coin, it fraud- 
ulently purports to represent ; that is to say, there is no idea any- 
where in the mind of man, never was, and never can be, correspond- 
ing to the meaning imaginarily attached to the term matter, as 
designed by the materialists. It is, hence, one of that class of words, 
with which, men, not over-burdened with ideas, as Goethe felici- 
tously observes : " Wo die Qedanken fehlen stellt of zu redder Zeit ein 
Wort sich ein," when sorely pressed by an adversary, and the stock 
of thoughts is exhausted, help themselves out of the dilemma for 
the moment, by a word of doubtful or no import, that opportunely 



230 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

presents itself, c.) For these men tell us, that all the knowledge man 
has got and can get, is obtained through the senses, which, en pas- 
sant, is not the fact, but is true so far as the testimony, relating to 
their pretended matter, is concerned. Now we have in the preced- 
ing pages of this volume, analyzed these senses, and shown the im- 
pressions derived by the various phenomena acting thereon, in a 
manner as extensive and exhaustive as never has been done, here- 
tofore, by any set of men, and least of all, by writers advocating ma- 
terialism and atheism, — who, instead of a close analysis of nature as 
it is, prefer to indulge in declamatory " glittering generalities," merely 
founded in their imaginations, which, upon a little nearer inspec- 
tion, turn all out to be sheer tinsel, without one grain of gold. 
Now, we defy all materialists and atheists that were, are, and ever 
will be, to only point out, either the single or collective impression, 
from one, or more, or all of man's senses, indicating anywhere, and 
in any manner, the presence of such a Proteus shaped material, as 
they claim their imaginary matter to be. For, mark it well, the 
senses, and especially those of touch, smell, taste, and sensual feel- 
ing, disclose phenomena, making us acquainted with a material or 
force that may be termed matter, which, however, is an actual con- 
crete something, capable of being scientifically exactly defined, in its 
attributes, and differing, hence, from the pretended matter of the 
wandering materialist, like an existing entity from an imaginary 
nothing d.) We have said, in sub-§ b, that to the word matter, in 
the sense used by the materialist or atheist, there was no corres- 
ponding thought or idea attached in the intellect; and now, we shall 
show there never can be. And, after having done so, and therein 
demolished and annihilated the very foundation upon which the 
imaginary fort or citadel of Materialism and Atheism rests, — 
others may collect the scattering materials appertaining to the down- 
tumbling ruins, bereft of their only foothold. "When the atheistic 
materialist says : " All that exists is matter, there is nothing else any- 
where but matter :" he tells the world, in his way, that : "thought 
and soil, light and darkness, heat and cold, fire and water, earth 
and sky, land and sea, space and nature, infinity and the finite, life 
and death, power and impotence, thinking and gravity, intelligence 
and insanity, intellect and the atom, with all other things, no matter 
how opposite, contrary and contradictory to one another in qualities 



FORM AND SPIRIT OF THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY, 231 

and nature, that language can name, or being and existence any- 
where show up, — consist, one and all, of one identical essence, have, 
therefore, all one common source, from which they spring as their 
common cause, belong, hence, all to one single universal class of 
things, denoting one main leading criterion, by which, of necessity, 
they all alike belong to this one and only class, and are its effects, and 
of its substance : and that essence, source, class and cause of all things 
he terms matter, defining it as all that, — which man can perceive- 
by his senses." e.) Whereupon, in the name of human reason, we 
reply to him : You, to all appearance, are a human being, make 
use of the common faculties of man, employ his language and its 
words, to denote and express your tlwughts, and hence it is your 
duty to conform to use language, according to the laivs of reason, 
like rational men. Hence you ought to know, that all the senses, 
by prima facie evidence, inform you, that your assertion most cruelly 
belies them, — that instead of one thing, they show you an infinity 
of things, all of which, instead of being alike are absolutely differing 
and varying from one another, nay, that it is this very principle of 
difference, upon which all their divers and clearly definable percep- 
tions are founded, as they neither know nor perceive anywhere 
absolute identity, but only heterogeneousness in all things, compared 
to one another. Next, it should have been your business to know 
the laws by which man's common intellect is immutably governed 
in all sane operations of thinking. Had you known, these laws of 
thought, the very first one (see Chap, xxi, § 14, a, b, and c), that 
of logical possibility, would have informed you, that the mind can 
not combine two contradictory attributes in any idea entertained in 
its consciousness, as nothing can be one thing, and the exact con- 
trary thereof, in the same moment of time. Now, in the monstrous 
synthesis and classification, which is implied in your assertion, " that 
all things are matter," you attempt to bind all the contradictory attri- 
butes known to, and thinkable of, by the mind of man, which, by 
mere presence mutually annihilate one another, together into one 
class, and under one common name to transmutate them into one 
solitary substance ; but it turns out, as we, before this, asserted, that 
the name you give to your classification, has no idea whatever, 
neither clear nor unclear, attached to it, since any generalization 
based upon all the phenomena of the senses, can, per se, embrace no 



232 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

forces superior to those senses themselves. Hence, your classifica- 
tion of mutually destroying contraries, is the same one which the 
crazy man makes, after he has lost his reason ; whereby, no longer 
able to see the difference in things, and understanding their attri- 
butes, all things swim for him, pell-mell, into one chaotic mass, 
drowning his judgment and intelligence, so that, no longer a rational 
being, he is henceforth of no further use to himself and others. 
That your mental act just performed, is insanity, is proven by 
your placing reason, the very light by which you formed your 
attempt at classification, however monstrous it is, not only in one 
and the same class with things infinitely inferior to it, but also assert 
it to originate from a cause as an effect, which, by the very perception 
of the senses themselves, proves itself as absolutely destitute of 
possessing, even in the remotest possibility, the power of thinking ; 
which fact alone suffices to make good your claim to a berth in 
some lunatic asylum, where you may amusingly entertain the in- 
mates with your profound and brilliant thoughts, as they are the 
only hind of thinkers capable of doing them full justice, offsetting 
them with their likes, and thus paying you in your own coin. /.) 
Thus, in asserting, that reason and intellect, the highest force known, 
to man, by consciousness and fact, sensually perceived as ruling all 
else in existence around man, to be produced by & force sensually 
perceptible, which soon we shall show, to be at the lowermost bot- 
tom in the scale of forces : proves the materialist, by itself, to be 
insane, as by it, he not only denies suicidically the superiority of 
reason over all other things known, but actually shows, that in him, 
reason is no longer superior, sane and sound, but submits to, and 
asserts itself to be the production of, a something, which is the very 
essence of inaction, inertness, and death itself ; having of all things 
and forces known and imaginable, the very least resemblance to rea- 
son, thinking, and intelligence. In this action, wherein the denial 
of God's existence is included, the materialist or atheist, proves 
himself : 1.) as insane, or destitute of sound reasoning powers ; 
2.) as a willful liar, denying the existence of a God, by whom he 
was created, and through whose will and power alone he continues 
to live and exist ; 3.) as a fiendish, murderous ingrate, and infernal 
parricide, who, so far as theory and desire are concerned, has, by his 
denial, deprived his God and Creator, already, of existence, life and 



FORM AND SPIRIT OF THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 233 

power, and would hence, were an opportunity possible and pre- 
senting, consummate the safanic act, with the same practical readiness, 
as Absalom the degenerate attempted against his father, David of old. 
20. a.) As we have, by our grand generalization, transmutated all 
abstract and concrete things, into one class termed forces, at the 
head or upper extreme or pole of which we placed the unitary idea of 
God, there is, in descending downward in the series, of necessity, 
a lowermost extreme or pole, representing, so far as force or power is 
concerned, the very opposite of God's all-potent capacity. That 
force we define, as sound thinkers in all ages have defined it, as 
inert, dead, lifeless matter. Even the thinkers who shaped the 
national mind of old Greece, and most nations of antiquity, knew 
it by that designation, as the lowest of all conceivable forces ; for 
they also perceived the forces extant in nature and its organized 
beings ascending from it upward towards intellect and deity, which 
forces their exuberant imagination endowed with life, and individu- 
alized by personification, considering them as sub-deities, calling them 
demigods, demons, gods of earth, forest, water, etc., etc. b.) This 
inert matter is that material which, as the lowest of all possible 
forces, is used by all of them for building their habitations or bodies. 
For it is only through and by the form and qualities of these 
bodies, that these forces can appear to, and become active and re- 
active upon, one another. It is hence only by the medium of this 
matter that these forces can provide for themselves " a local habita- 
tion^ and a home. For it is not the thinking mind of man alone 
whose nature is invisi ble and intangible to the senses, but all the forces 
in nature whatsoever, are equally themselves supersensual, and their 
presence and qualities can only become known from their actions and 
effects. All the senses of man perceive of these forces, is the 
form of their bodies or habitations, and the mode and manner their 
action impresses these several senses ; and from these impressions, 
translated into conceptions, the intellect by thought, beholds the 
inner nature and essence of these forces, and becomes enabled to 
assign to each its proper place in its universal classification. There 
are strong reasons, indicating that, like water is composed only of 
the two elementary forces of hydrogen and oxygen, so all forms of 
inert matter are composed of a few elementary ingredients, display- 
ing only two original and permanent attributes, in general belonging 



234 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

to all the forms, being extent and gravity, which are considered as the 
effect of attraction and repulsion, or the dualism of the general law 
of gravitation. 

21. a.) In \ 19, a, we state that we shall convict the materialist 
and atheist of what we assert of them, by testimony forced out of 
their own mouth. They who assail, or want to prove, any thing 
concerning revealed religion, resort to the Scriptures, called the 
Bible, considered, by friend or foe, as the authentic document, rela- 
tive to the premises. The same holds good of the Koran, con- 
cerning matters relative to Islamism or the religion of the Turk. 
Noav, it so happens that God-denying materialism can boast of a 
book, of which Lord Henry Brougham, in his " Discourse of Natu- 
ral Theology," has declared : " There is no booh of an atheistical 
description, which has ever made a greater impression, than the famous 
Systeme de la Nature." This book appeared first, anonymously, 
in Paris, somewhere about the year 1770, and public rumor, for a 
while, ascribed its paternity to Mirabaud. Its true author, some 
time afterward, was however ascertained to be a Grerman, Baron von 
Holbach.* The worshipers of atheism and matter, look upon this 
book as the aUest presentation of their creed ever made ; take pains 
and pride in spreading Brougham's above cited declaration thereof, 
and let people know, that it is also their own. Hence we shall use 
it, to furnish us the testimony, of which we spoke in § 19 ; as 
the voice of neither friend nor foe will contest its authenticity, or its 
being the authority of its party, b.) Although Holbach is unques- 
tionably the ablest writer who ever espoused, and acted the cham- 
pion for, the miserable, wretched, and terrible cause, for which he 
pleads, and although evidently a man of erudition, and extensive 
and versatile reading ; he is not only no genius, whose piercing 
intellect at once penetrates to the core of the things he undertakes 
to handle, but he defends the main points of his own creed so 
bunglingly and awkwardly, that his own party would have hissed 
him from the stage, if they had possessed the brains, on the one 
hand, to really understand what he says ; and if, on the other, he 
did not abstract their, as also the general reader's attention, away, 



* Under the title : " The System of Nature, by Baron d'Holbach," an English transla- 
tion, 2 vols, in one, was published in New York, by G. W. & A. J. Matsell. 1835. 



FORM AND SPIRIT OF THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 235 

from his own weak spots, and fix it upon the really dextrous man- 
ner, in which, discovering and assailing their vulnerable points, he 
carries on, apparently not unsuccessfully, a general guerilla mode 
of warfare, with all the old systems, and the manifold practical 
abuses therewith connected, in vogue and power at the time he 
wrote. By quoting what he says, upon the several main points at 
issue, we shall show that he also, their very leader, proves himself 
by acts and facts no less insane than his inferior subalterns, and, 
what, wonderful to tell, the world surely does not expect to hear, 
contradicts himself so flatly, in the most essential point of the con- 
troversy, that hardly any adversary could do it more pointedly, c.) 
Holbach pretends to possess reason, for, on page 65 of his book, he 
correctly says : " Without reason man is only a blind creature who 
conducts himself by chance." Now, let us see whom that shoe will 
fit. The title of his book he modestly names : 1.) " The System of 
Nature, or Laws of the Moral and Physical World." A system 
being the exact and scientific knowledge of a thing, Holbach, ac- 
cording to the title of his book will now surely destroy that mys- 
terious and threatening sphinx-form of nature, which gazes so 
sternly, often frighteningly, into man's face ; lift its covering vail, and 
permit us, with open eyes, to behold its wonderful secrets. Does the 
title of his book not encourage us to expect, at least, that much ? 
Now, what does the great wizard give us, when discovering, his 
falling short of fulfilling the expectations thus raised ? Well, with 
unblushing bluntness, he now confesses his utter ignorance, by de- 
claring , page 28 ; " Let us then be content with an honest avowal that 
nature contains resources of which we are ignorant." And, on page 
223, he again acknowledges his ignorance, by confessing : " We are 
ignorant of the mode in which plants vegetate." 2.) Eepeating the 
promise held out, by the second part of the title, of showing us the 
" Laws of the Moral and Physical World," we fare no better. But, 
in lieu thereof, we get, on page 43, the following fat morceau, of 
course in the all-sufficing form, of a mere dictum, because the as- 
sertions of a man so exalted, must blindly be swallowed, without 
any proof. "It is (says H). from thence (man's ignorance of himself, 
that), his notions of spirituality, immateriality, immortality, have 
successively sprung ; in short, all those vague unmeaning- words he 
has invented by degrees, to subtilize and designate the attributes 
20 



236 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

of the unknown power he believes he contains within himself; and 
which he conjectures to be the concealed principle of all his visible 

actions .... Thus man became double the functions of 

the one (the body), he denominated physical, corporeal, material; the 
functions of the other (soul or spirit), he styled spiritual, intellectual. 
Man, considered relatively to the first, was termed the physical 
man ; viewed with relation to the last, he was designated the moral 
man." The whole passage of which the above sentences form the 
gist, is a sj3ecimen of the " glittering generalities " to which we 
alluded in § 19, c, for this one impliedly asserts the insane falsehood, 
that the operations of thinking, and the processes and phenomena of 
the senses, display no difference, are of the same nature, may be 
ranged into one class, and need no distinction from one another, by 
proper and specific terms ! And yet, on page 49, this very man 
claims to belong to the class of " thinking beings," and whines about 
the rhapsodies, which some theological metaphysicians would have 
men believe ! All these, with a number of such sly insinuations, 
aiming at the same direction, are to prepare us for the more bold and 
final charge. We find it, — 3.) on page 43, as follows: "Thus, 
when it shall be inquired, wliat is man? We say, he is a material 

being Nature points out, that in man himself, as well as in all 

tJiose objects which act upon him, tJiere is nothing more tlian matter "... 
d.) Now, gentle reader, we warn you in time, to be somewhat on 
your guard, so that, if something excessively amusing should un- 
expectedly happen, you keep the reins of your risibles a little 
tight, otherwise we will not be responsible for what may occur to 
your vulnerable sides. Now, follow us attentively, for we design 
leading you to a sight, you may consider worth beholding for its 
rarity. On page 33, he invokes the toleration of the deist, telling 
him : " The deist can have no just cause of enmity against the atheist 
for his want of faith," and, exemplifying, how an imp of darkness 
can approvingly quote Scripture, he reminds him of " that great 
moral axiom," which is strictly conformable to nature, containing 
the nucleus of man's happiness : "Do not unto another, tJiat ichich 
you do not wish another should do unto you." On page 22, he says : 
li To fonn the universe, Des Cartes* asked but ' matter and motion.' . . . 

* We suspect that Holbach either misconceives, or misconstrues Des Cartes, in what 
here, apparently, he ascribes to him, by quotation, as an assertion ; having been una- 



FORM AND SPIRIT OF THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 237 

The existence of matter, he, Holbach, claims as a fact; the ex- 
istence of motion he adduces as another fact Motion, he says, is 
a manner of being, which matter derives from its peculiar existence." 

At this stage of the proceedings, we suppose ourselves as a 
stranger, opportunely meeting the famous Baron, and addressing 
the great man, somewhat after this facetious style: "We are 
learned Baron, we guess, at least, in some points, by half your 
proselyte. For, already, two hundred years before you, the eru- 
dite Joseph Scaliger has told the world, and told it correctly, in 
our estimation : ' That all human quarrels, arise merely from men 
misunderstanding the words they mutually employ.' Now, we have 
heard you say ; that all things existing are indiscriminately and 
exclusively composed of, and originate from, one single material, 
which you term matter, thereby reducing the essence of all things to 
one stuff. That, in one respect, suits our taste exactly, for we want 
union and harmony, and hate division and discord. But, now, let 
us not follow the wicked footsteps of the old superstitious world, 
professing by theory one thing, and carrying out by practice entirely 
another ; but let us come square up to the rack, 'fodder or no fod- 
der.' For here is your bright burning sun, in that azure sky, — 
there, all around, in that horizontal cavity, is the dark blue ether, 
filling boundless space, — yonder is the black, solid earth, with its 
hills, mountains, and valleys, and its huge, dark-green briny deep. 
All these, the infinite and the finite, and all other things, being 
alike and only the same one thing called matter; where's the use to 
call them by different names, and bother our brains by a distracting 
multiplicity, when and where we can have unity and uniformity so 
cheap and easy ? Therefore let us throw that whole vocabulary of 
words, invented by men to befuddle themselves and confound one 
another, to the four winds, and call all things indiscriminately by 
your one, great, all-embracing word, matter. Have we, profoundly 
learned Baron, got the right handle of your system, reasoning, and 
their tendency ; or has your science other definitions, of which we 
are as yet ignorant ?" 

Holbach. — "You have, polite stranger, understood me one-sidedly, 
no doubt, from want of knowing all the essential 1 have said on the 

bla to discover any passage in the great thinker's writings justifying the statement of 
Holbach. 



238 THE TEMPLE OP TRUTH. 

subject. Let me correct and complete your impressions "by quoting 
my requisite definitions. On page 24, I say : ' A satisfactory defi- 
nition of matter has not yet been given. ' " 

Stranger. — "A definition of matter, embracing under it, all you 
design, neither we nor the world, have ever seen or heard of ; hence 
we are all on tiptoe to learn how it is framed ; therefore proceed." 

Holbach. — Page 24. " We know nothing of the elements of bodies, 
but we know some of their properties or qualities ; and we desig- 
nate their various matter by the effect or change produced on 
our senses." 

Stranger. — K Why do you employ the term various matter, for, as 
the word matter is an aggregative singular and not a plural : how 
can that which is all one and alike itself, be various f" 

Holbach. — " Well, you have not yet heard what my book says 
on this head, hence listen : P. 24, ' Man, deceived and led astray 
by his prejudices, formed but vague, superficial and imperfect 
notions of it (that is, of matter). He looked upon it as a unique 
being, gross and passive, incapable of either moving itself, of form- 
ing combinations, or, of producing any thing by its energies ; while 
he ought to have contemplated it as a genus of beings, of which the 
individuals, although they might possess some common properties, 
such as extent, divisibility, figure, etc., should not, however, be all 
ranked in the same class, nor Comprised under the same General De- 
nomination.' P. 22 : ' Indeed, it is an error, to believe that matter 
is a homogeneous body, of which the parts differ from each other 
only by their various modifications.' " 

Stranger. — "That's enough, my learned Doctor, for now and for- 
ever. I only wanted to draw you fully out from your hiding-place, 
and here, then, I have got j^ou at last in open, solar daylight. Tor 
your definitions, I do truly tell you: " I thank thee, Jew, for that 
word." For, in them, as we presently shall see, your own tongue 
performs the twofold great service, first, openly to undeceive your 
own blindfolded followers, and next to acknowledge to an astound- 
ing world, that you and your clique have been cheating them all the 
while by a mere humbug, and have done it knowingly, as you show 
yourself (as was charged in \ 19, b, and elsewhere, and proved in 
d, e, f of same §), that you use the word matter as a basis for your 
reasoning, and building your structure upon it, without combining 



FORM AND SPIRIT OF THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOFHY. 239 

any idea or clear thought whatever with the word. Nay, in the 
above definitions, you impliedly declare, that no thought can be 
found, capable of comprising, as a class-thought (which is the same 
thing as a general denomination), all the attributes of existence which 
you have attempted to compress into the term matter. For, you 
distinctly and expressly confess : that the motley mass of things, 
which you attempt to embrace under the name of matter, form not 
"a homogeneous body ;" nay, you perceive them as a collection of 
beings so contradictorily heterogeneous : that they " cannot be 
ranked into one (or the same) class, nor comprised under the same 
general denomination." And yet, after you see, and say, that the 
thing (as opposed to the law of logical possibility, \ 19, e), can not, 
and should, not, be done, you do the very thing itself, by calling 
matter a genus of beings, which name of genus is nothing but the 
name of a class or general denomination, and have done it all 
the time, by using the word matter itself, in the same sense, as 
if expressive of a simple general denomination I And. after you 
have now, by your own words (not even mentioning your express 
admission of your utter ignorance of the elements of things, p. 24), 
proved yourself an ass, as well as crazy and insane, as a cracked 
intellect, incapable of perceiving the most glaring contradictions 
in its own processes of reasoning, we throw the henceforth life- 
less shadow of your brainless theories, thus bereft of all and any 
foundation in man's intellect and the nature of things, to the four 
winds, as a thing that claimed being, but never had any. 

22. a.) And to the true champions of Idealism, after we, as here- 
tofore promised, have now reinstated them into their original rights, 
not merely by annihilating the usurper that kept them out of pos- 
session, or by raising their truth into higher relief, that tliought is the 
highest reality, but by making, by new, all-sweeping generalizations, 
their domain boundless and real as the intellect itself, changing all 
things into thoughts, consisting in ideas, and their constituents, con- 
ceptions : thus placing its great idea into that unbounded freedom 
which Marquis Posa had in his mental eye, when enthusiastically 
urging Philip II, of Spain : " Sire, give liberty to thought, and the 
world will be created anew,"* we now saj" : " Lay hold of that world 

* Schiller.— Don Carlos. 



240 THE TEMPLE 0J? TRUTH. 

in good earnest, and it will gladly submit, and help to become changed 
into the realized great ideas of beauty, truth, and goodness, after which 
all sound intellects aspire, and all noble hearts sigh and yearn." b.) In 
sub- J c, of § 16, we alluded to the doom, to which the lie, with its 
twin brothers, robbery and murder, would finally, exemplified by 
history, lead men collectively. At the time when Holbach's book 
appeared in France, morality at court, and among the leading classes 
of that people, is reported to have been at such frightful ebb, that "sin 
had lost all its deformity." Dissipation, debauchery, and unbridled 
indulgence of brutish sensuality, being the order of the day, the 
means for their gratification could no longer be procured by fair 
ways and means, — hence, villainy, oppression, and cruel extortion, 
were resorted to. When rulers and leaders of nations thus become 
the robbers and devourers of their own flock, they thereby teach their 
victims a terrible game, which the hand of retributive justice, in a 
brief time, may reverse, by changing the position of the parties, 
making the former victim the judge of his quondam oppressor. 
Although sin may lose its deformity, nature's law takes care that 
it never loses its venom or sting, nor will the unbending law of ethics 
ever permit conscience to make friends with it. Hence, those 
" damning, paining, torturing spots," that will not obey, to go out 
and be forgotten, make those of their victims, who, unwilling to 
reform, and bent on continuing sinning, sigh for some remedy, of an 
atheistical tendency. Hence, when Holbach's book came out, openly 
preaching atheism, based upon materialistic sophistries, but set forth 
with a versatile dexterity of erudite, verbose, and flourishing polemics, 
captivating, and more than a match for the shallow- culture, and 
superficial mode of thought of that people at that day : it was, all 
at once, by large and increasing numbers, embraced as the welcome, 
healing gospel of the hour, since sinners and criminals, bent on per- 
sisting to ruin their fellow-men, can find no consolation in the 
thought of immortality, but may imagine some relief in the illu- 
sion "that death is eternal sleep." The book was hence read at court 
and in saloon, in paloce and parlor. But, by embracing the mad 
tenets of the dread book, the men in power and leaders of society 
set their own house on fire, and were speedily consumed in its awful 
conflagration. When oppression ceased to be endurable, the people, 
driven to madness, rose upon their tormmtors. The leaders of the 



FORM AND SPIRIT OF THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 241 

rampant revolution, soon discovered that the merciless nature of 
atheistic principles, was just as handy and convenient for destroying 
the instruments charged as guilty of the people's suffering, in collec- 
tive masses, by incessant guillotining, assisted by Noyading* and 
8eptembrizing,\ as it had been to the oppressors, to commit, while in 
power, without sting of conscience, their skinning depredations upon 
a starving, tortured people. Within a few years, king, court, clergy, 
with the aristocracy of every degree and description, had alike, to 
walk the bloody plank to their gory doom ; while myriads of their 
kin, only saved naked life, by a clandestine flight into foreign 
lands. The bloodiest of the revolutionists, after killing, mercilessly, 
guilty and innocent victims, indiscriminately, by the legion, thus 
provoking " measure for measure," got their pay at the guillotine, at 
the hands of their own colleagues. And after Holbach's book, 
being legitimately the system of cut- throats, assassins, and human 
beasts of prey, had thus fulfilled the tragic destiny of its mission in 
France, it was even there regarded with general horror, and, in a 
short time, consigned to general oblivion. In Germany, the book 
never obtained any foothold. The true Teutonic intellect, said 
"to think for Europe "\ penetrates the baseless pretensions of mate- 
rialism, a priori, by an intuitive perception, of its non-entity, with- 
out going into the extensive analyses of its sophistries, as we have 
done. Hence, German thinkers treated Holbach's book, with such 
scornful contempt, — not even deigning to mention it by name. The 
reason why we did it the honor to give it the "coup de grace," was 
partly a matter of duty toward " Idealism," as also to clear the road 
of all manner of mental and moral rubbish, which, in the least may 
impede the entrance and onward and triumphant march of the 
philosophy, alluded to in the heading of this chapter. 

23. Having now in the positive, living idea of Deity (proven 
present in all incorrupt men), as the upper extreme of our science, 
obtained, a.) its inclosing, infinite form ; b.) a force, greater than 
all other forces existing combined, and therein the meter, scale, gauge, 
for measuring all other forces, and thus determining their value for, 
and relation to, God and man, and hence the place belonging to each 



* Wholesale massacres, by drowning. t General butcheries in the prisons, 

t Emerson,— ''English Traits,' 1 ' 1 p. 253. 



242 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

in the grand system of classification ; we now have to see to the 
other extreme, that is, see, which one in our series of forces, is at the 
lowest bottom, to which man's thought, and the range of existence, 
descends. 

24. That lowest "bottom, which may be considered as the zero 
point of all actual and possible forces, is the force which, in \ 20, a 
and b, we have defined as inert matter. Between it and intellect, 
nature with its phenomena, resulting from the most versatile play 
with this matter by the countless forces ascending upward from it, 
fills, in regular gradations, this wide gap. Various lines, thus run- 
ing upward from matter toward man, are seen passing through inter- 
mediates, into vegetation and vitality, and when reaching man, 
converge in him into one. Thus life, as existing in the corals and 
conchlice, appears bordering closely upon matter, or the mineral 
domain ; as immense quantities of these insects appear perpetually 
engaged, as God's creative laborers, to lay the foundation of new 
islands and continents in the vast ocean. Next, matter, in the 
asbestos, a mineral, growing like a configurating plant, passes through 
the lichens and mosses, fairly into the empire of vegetation. Vege- 
tation, a sleeping, unconscious life, approaches vitality ; first, in the 
mimosa sensitiva, evincing something akin to living feeling, by shrink- 
ing back from foreign touch ; and, then, in the zoophytes, especially 
the polypus, fairly interlinks hands, with the domain of animation. 
Finally, as the human child primarily develops its faculties by 
imitating the adults around it, since man's most distinctive exterior 
trait is his propensity of imitation; we find that the monkey, by form 
and imitative propensity, most unequivocally, leads the connecting 
line of the lower forces by these two features upward toward man. 
In the first instance it approacJies man in the Pongo, Orang Outang, 
Chimpanzee, and Gibbon- Golok, in various modes, so nearly inform 
as a caricature to the original ; and next, it displays, in these 
creatures, a most wonderful propensity and capacity of imitation, 
whereof Wilbrand very correctly says : " The monkey shows no 
trace of reason, but in many species a great approximation toward it.* 

25. a.) In chap, xxii, we demonstrated that there are three only 
sources of knowledge for man : nature, reason, and revealed religion, 

* Wilbrand, Naturgeschichte, Giessen, 1829. 



FORM AND SPIRIT OF THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 243 

each being equally the voice and emanation of one and the same 
God. In reasoning with the innocent child, unspoiled youth, or 
uncorrupted man, we can use all these three sources from the very 
start, when desirous of instructing them in any truth. In laying, 
however, a scientific foundation for the idea of the Supreme Being, 
as we needed it for our system, it became our duty to show, by and 
through reason alone, that its sanity is inseparable from the percep- 
tion and acknowledgment of an intelligent first cause, since all men, 
believers, doubters, and deniers alike, have to bow to the all-ruling 
majesty of the intellect. After reason is thus convinced, that it only 
is and acts through God, or the great All-Reason, dwelling, cotempo- 
raneously, in all intellects, and could impossibly be, if God was not ; 
it then can use nature and revealed religion, as two additional reve- 
lations of God, for learning to know itself, nature, and God, and 
make such knowledge superlatively useful, by its wisest application. 
b.) Until now, neither man, nor the human intellect have ever yet 
been securely placed in any position, to reap the infinite benefits pro- 
fusely offered to him by God's threefold revelation. For, in all mat- 
ters relating to good, truth, and wisdom, men until now work and 
aspire dividedly and individually, and thus can, comparatively ac- 
complish only small things ; and what thus accomplishing, they often 
tear down, one for the other. Whereas, in things to produce harm 
and mischief upon the largest scale, like war and mutual destruction, 
men have discovered system and method, and by a perpetual practice, 
since time immemorial, have rendered the same infernally perfect. 
Now, as the great system of God's conjoined truth, proclaimed by na- 
ture, reason, and religion, as with one voice, can never he realized, not 
even as a consummated theory of science, by the individual mind of 
any man, since no single intellect, not even that of an admirable 
Crichton, can be found, possessing the countless details, in all branches 
of science, thereto indispensably required ; but absolutely demands 
an indefinite number of men, of all the various gifts, qualifications, 
and acquirements, acting in love of truth and the joyous good- will of 
genuine friendship harmoniously together to secure the great grand 
aim of all ; the glorious goal can only be reached, when God's 
providence shall bring about such a union among men. c.) For the 
arrival of that union, all good men sigh and pray ; for they know 
that the same has been promised and prophesied, in various modes 
21 



244 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

and places, eventually to become fulfilled. First, every upgrowing 
young man or woman, as long as God's work in their bosom re- 
mains unspoiled, can constantly there hear the clear words of 
promise and prophecy, that man, by acting with God, can produce 
for man, on earth, a happiness, with joys and beatitudes as bound- 
less as heaven itself, so that its very thought makes the heart leap 
with delight and extasy. 'Next, the wish present in all good men, 
that this " good time" might come soon, secures their most alert 
and energetic co-action, whenever they discover the unmistakable 
"sign," that the grand era is approaching. Then, in Matt, vi, 10, 
Christ teaches his followers to pray : " Thy kingdom come. Thy 
will he done in earth as it is in heaven." The kingdom of God, is 
heaven, an ocean of boundless joy, and benignant power. God's 
will, as there done, is all the purest love and tenderest kindness. 
Christ knowing the destiny, the world and man eventually would 
reach, in conformity with God's glorious plan, saw the ultimate 
advent of God's heaven upon earth, as an absolute certainty. 
Hence he taught men to pray for it, as thereby its spirit and life 
enter the heart of the sincerely praying, whereby he receives the 
assurance that Christ's words will exteriorly be made as true in due 
time, by " heaven's arrival," as he now feels its truth within ; and 
thus experiences : " There's nothing true hut heaven."* 

26. a.) The form of the system of philosophy, which, as a 
demonstrated science, will ultimately prevail among men ; will, on 
the one hand, be encyclopozdial or all-embracing ; and, on the other, 
consisting altogether, of facts and truths indubitably certain, be 
entirely & positive without any negative. Thus proving all it asserts 
by practice, embracing nothing finally as part of itself, until the 
same has proven its clear title to admission ; the form of the sys- 
tem itself will, of necessity, exclude every thing doubtful and un- 
reliable, thereby making, eo ipso, every thing it includes, inevitably, 
infallibly certain. Containing thus the germ of perpetual growth, 
or infinite perfectibility, such system may commence as a small speck, 
like the stone which Daniel (chap, ii, 34, 35), saw cut out, smiting 
Nebuchadnezzar's image, and like this little rock, grow on, until fill- 
ing, as one vast mountain, the whole earth, b.) The spirit ruling this 
great system of humanly-divine science, will be that of boundless 

* Moore. 



FORM AND SPIRIT OF THE FINALLY RULING PHILOSOPHY. 245 

goodness and love, aiming at the redemption of the whole race of 
man, and of making them all virtuous, wise, good, and happy. 
Isaiah, the God-and-man-loving prophet ; the man who, among all 
men of antiquity, resembled Christ most, in boundless all-embrac- 
ing love, foresaw and foretold man's eventual possession of a sys- 
tem of absolute truth, excluding all error and falsehood, and including 
the unerring knowledge to carry it into infallible practice. For, in 
chap, xxxv, 8, he says : " And a highway shall be there, and a way, 
and it shall be called the way of Iwliness ; the unclean shall not pass 
over it ; but it shall be for those : the ivayfaring men, though fools, 
shall not err therein." In verse 9, he says, that : " No (human) 
beasts of prey, but only the redeemed shall be found to walk there." 
And, in verse 10, he says : " The ransomed of the Lord shall re- 
turn and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon theif 
heads : they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing 
shall flee away." c.) Jeremiah, the disciple of Isaiah, did likewise 
clearly foresee that ultimate and most glorious possession of man, 
for, in chapter xxxi, verse 34, he distinctly says : "For they shall 
all Jcnow me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the 
Lord." Now remember, that the knowledge of God here spoken of 
is not a vague and indefinite opining, but a divinely scientific insight 
into God's ineffable being, such as superior beings, called angels, 
possess, and of which realistic knowledge of the infinite, Christ 
himself, John xvii, 3, says : "It is life eternal." The most among 
the rest of the prophets have also foreseen and foretold the happy 
time in explicit terms. 

27. «.) Christ came on earth to redeem man from the hell of 
evils, engendered by the path of error, wrong, and sin he pursues, 
and place him in the heaven of boundless joy, inevitably resulting 
from the pursuit of God-like perfection, as his only true aim. This 
aspiration to every thing great, noble, exalted, and divine, was the 
godlike fire which he had come to kindle in men's hearts upon 
earth, and which, Luke xii, 49, he so ardently wishes : " That it 
were burning already." b.) True to their Master's instruction and 
example, and obedient to the tuition infused into their hearts, on 
the day of Pentecost, by the Holy Ghost of love and truth, the prim- 
itive Christians, saw to it, that there were no longer any victims of 
any sort, to be found in their midst; and, so far as their means 



246 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

extended, they saved those, who desired, that had fell a prey to the 
disordered social arrangements around them. For they felt, that 
the fratricidal query of cold unconcern : " Am I my brother's Jceeperf" 
would never stand God's light for a moment, and that any man, 
seeing his fellow-being suffer, while help was in his power, could 
only do so, at his own, most imminent peril. Luke xvi, 19, 25. c.) 
Now, as the first Christians, were enabled by wisdom and love from 
on high, to solve every social query harmoniously, without any 
difficulty whatsoever : so it will again be when God's love, and 
Christ's spirit, re-descend on earth, to teach men the wisdom of 
eternity. For they, whom heavenly affection will bind together, 
in the earnest and conjoint pursuit of their eternal aim, " divine per- 
fection," have in that love discovered the mightiest mystery, that 
solves all queries and difficulties. In it lies a wisdom, instinctively 
detecting all needed hidden truth, being " a true bee-line to heaven, 
and from one heaven into a higher;" hence an ever- moving line, 
perpetually ascending " onward and upward." 

28. a.) Isaiah speaks of this grand ultimate in God's design, also 
in chap, ii, verse 2, calling it "the mountain of the Lord's house 
and that it shall be established in the top of the mountains ; and 
shall be exalted above the hills ; and all nations shall flock unto it," 
indicating a wisdom so exalted, that ordinary science, compared to 
it, shall appear like a hill to a mountain ; and repeating, that all na- 
tions shall embface it, being the same thing with Daniel's stone 
growing until filling all earth, b.) And, finally, in Apoc. chap, xxi, 
verse 2, St. John sees the consummation of all these prophecies in 
the New Jerusalem, or the divine form of human society, prepared 
as a bride adorned for her husband, descending from God out of 
lieaven, upon earth ; whose participants, regenerated and fashioned by 
God's truth, are all divine lovers, friends, sisters, and brothers, c.) 
At verses, 3, 4, John hears a great voice out of heaven, saying : 
" Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with 
them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, 
and be their God." " And God shall wipe away all tears from their 
eyes ; and there shall be no more death (that is, hate and malice) ; 
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain ; 
for the former things are passed away." Then " philosophy the re- 
ligion of thought, and religion, the philosophy of eternity," 



REALIZATION OF IDEAS AND IDEALS. 247 

will so intimately Mend, that the form of all things will be science ; 
the essence of science, in the service of mankind and God, will be 
holy, and science with art, will be the journeyman of the gee at mas- 
ter of the Universe, helping Him to build up a temple of love, 
beatitude and glory, so transcending, that its never-ending joys shall 
surpass all expectations and even the highest hopes of men. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



CAN IDEAS AND IDEALS BE ACTUALIZED, OR WHAT AND WHICH, 
ARE THE PRINCIPLES AND BOUNDARIES OP REALIZATION, AND 
LAWS OF HUMAN PERFORMING CAPACITY ? 

1. Having in Chap, xxiii, ascertained the great end and purpose, 
for which man has been created, it remains now to be seen, in what 
mode and manner the grand aim is to be achieved. For success in 
all enterprises depends primarily upon the correctly understood 
modus operandi of their respective processes, and the clear compre- 
hension of the end, to which every portion thereof is to lead, a.) 
To the humiliation of man's exuberant pretensions, we have found 
that the soi disant wisdom of his book philosophers, never discovered 
man's true aim, and even after the same had been clearly disclosed 
by Christ, miraculously failed to stumble into perceiving the fact, 
during a lapse of nearly nineteen centuries. This singular fact 
contains for us, the meter of size and value, of all systems hitherto 
ushered into the world, as likewise of the men themselves, who 
were their authors. The godlike perfection raised by Christ, as the 
standard of man's aim, was too boundless an idea, for the clouded 
intellects and contracted hearts, of all of them ; and even the very 
best among them only looked up, with bewildering, adoring amaze- 
ment, to a, to them incomprehensible process, which lifted the seem- 
ingly insignificant creature man, up to an altitude as infinitely high, as 
God's own eternal throne. As soon as we shall clearly understand 
the idea which Christ combined with the proposition : " Man, to be 
perfect as his Father in heaven is perfect :" we will also understand 
the mystery, why many a man, praised for his vast learning ; is, 



248 THE TEMPLE OF TEUTH. 

nevertheless, at heart, so much of a fool, as not to understand Christ 
at all b.) To get at this precise idea, as entertained by Christ's own 
intellect, we have to look somewhat closer at the spirit and aspira- 
tion, that animated him, in order therefrom to learn, what, before 
and above all things, lie had most anxiously at heart. To any man 
who has the mental eye to see (and the blind who has not, has no 
voice in the case), it is clear a priori, that Christ loves all men more 
profoundly, intensely, ardently, than the best of mothers is able to 
love her own children. This simple, but as yet scientifically in- 
comprehended, and unexplained fact, hints at the subsistence of a 
relation between Christ and the soul of every man, more close, in- 
timate, tender, thrilling, than man's present state and degree of science 
are able to apprehend and appreciate. Hence, only he can truly learn 
to know and understand Christ, and his ideas, who enters into his 
spirit of love to mankind, and makes the wishes and the longing, the 
desires and the aspiration of Jesus, his own. Then he will clearly 
understand, what he designed to express in Luke xii, 49 ; Matt, vi, 
10, and kindred passages ; and comprehend, in what manner, his, as 
yet unfulfilled last commission, Matt, xxviii, 19, 20, and Mark 
xvi, 15, are to be carried into full force and effect. To such seeing 
eye, the ineffable tenderness of Christ's love, surpassing the softest 
vibrations of even the truest maternal heart, is brightly visible in the 
expressive local figure, Matt, xxiii, 37, and Luke xiii, 34, indicating 
in that limited image, the boundlessness of his divine affection. From 
all this, it becomes clear, beyond any cavil, that the power or fac- 
ulty in man, required by Christ to be perfect before all others (as 
the perfection of every other depends tliereon, and receives its value 
therefrom), is that of his heart, soul, or volition ; for it must bum 
with love to God and man ; otherwise there is nothing in common 
between such man and Christ. That love in active blast, consti- 
tutes man's consummated regeneration, John iii, 1, 8 ; 1 John iv, 
16. c.) It is this love alone, that connects man with the spirit, aim, 
aspiration, nay, the very destiny of Cueist and his relation to 
mankind and the universe ; and provides him with those mighty, 
never-slacking motives to unceasing action, whereby he conquers all 
possible obstacles that obstruct his path to the grand, all-gloiious 
aim. Without such love man has no part and interest in Christ, if 
even his gifts and endowments were equal to those of supermundane 



IDEALIZATION OF IDEAS AND IDEALS. 24:9 

intellects, 1 Cor. xiii, 1. As lovers understand one another, so the 
man who truly loves Christ, with utmost ease, in childlike simplicity, 
comprehends the whole scope, drift, and tendency of his beautiful, 
all-loving system. To gratify the yearnings and mighty impulses 
of the divine love thus aroused in the soul, penetratingly inspired 
by Christ's godly truths : man, as we have seen (in Chaps, xxii and 
xxiii), fs also directed to nature and reason, as two additional 
sources and revelations, emanating equally from God ; since the 
first is to furnish him location and material, and the latter, insigH 
and wisdom, wherewith to realize an all-sided humanly-divine per- 
fection, into the exterior actuality of existence, d.) The system of 
Christ, regarded from this stand-point and aspect, is hence an in- 
finite, divinely-celestial ideal of ideals, which has proposed to itself 
the solution of the problem, of realizing, alongside with itself, all 
the logically, possible ideals in nature, reason, and humanity ; inas- 
much as all they, so far as consistent with, form only part of, itself; 
and thus belong to its own proper being. 

2. The method capable of realizing such grand actualization, is 
one, not dependent on unknown chances or casualties, but reposing 
upon fixed laws, whose action the enlightened understanding can 
clearly comprehend, and moreover perceive, that even until now, 
all performance thus far realized in the world, is the unmistakable 
result of their operation. Thus : a.) Of all things of human 
origin whatsoever, which now exteriorly surround man in any 
shape, or are in anywise subservient to his intellectual or various 
other operations, from the pin and needle to the wheelbarrow ; 
from the cart and coach to the locomotive, railroad, and ocean 
steamer Leviathan ; from the alphabet and primer, to the Coperni- 
can or any other system of theory or practice, together with the 
countless tools, of all kinds, and the practical dexterity to duly 
apply them, which man's mode of existence now possesses, and 
can show the use of ; there is, among this countless number of ob- 
jects, not a single one, which has, as it were, fallen from the sJcy, or 
sprouted out of the ground, or been revealed to man by supermun- 
dane spirits ; but every single piece thereof, was, at first, at one time 
or other, as a mere thought or invisible idea, in the mind or head of 
some thinking, inventive man. &.) Then the intellect (as shown 
already in Chap, v.), spurred and urged the cunning hand to countless 



250 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

experiments, until it, at last, succeeded in producing a proper cor- 
poreal form, for the thought existing in the mind. After this was 
accomplished, it was improved, until reaching that degree of perfection, 
which was deemed sufficient for use. Thus, pin, needle, thimble; 
pen, ink, paper, printing p-ess; steamer, railroad, telegraph, etc., etc., 
originated, c.) All unrealized thoughts in the intellect of man, no 
matter whether relating to smaller or larger bulks of material shape, 
or to moral and intellectual ideas or conditions of man, are in the 
strictest sense of the term, ideals. Thus the pin and needle as long 
as existing as a mere thought, in some human head, were not a 
whit less an ideal, than the first thought of the railroad, locomotive, 
steamer, etc, etc.; and, the difference between all these objects, as 
long as existing alike as mere logical possibilities, in, or before, 
man's intellect, consists originally merely in this : that the smaller 
ones of these thoughts or ideals, may be realized (that is, their 
thou glit or spirit receiving a proper form or body), through the crea- 
tively productive power of, from 1, 2, 3 to 10 men, whereas 
other and larger thoughts or ideals, require the power 20, 100, 
1000, a million or more men, to realize for their spirit an actualiz- 
ing body, d.) From this stand-point it is evident, and experience 
supports and emphasizes the assumption, that reason knows no 
unrealizable ideals, since all thoughts or ideas (see Chap, xxi, \ 14), 
which the laws of the intellect permit to be entertained, within one 
and the same consciousness, are realizable for the conjoint power of 
the human race. 

3. In Chap, xxi, § 23, we adduced the singularly extraordinary 
proposition, that for so long a time held a place as a law in logic, 
asserting that : " Certain things are true in the abstract, but not true in 
the concrete.^ Now, the manner in which this glaring falsehood 
succeeded in getting a foothold in a code of logic, can, even in an 
age ever so dark, only have been occasioned by one, or two, or 
all, of the following three cases : a.) First, the man introducing 
the said proposition into logic, may have entertained, based upon 
knowledge mixed with error, a certain abstract proposition within 
his mind, believed by him true, but which, upon trial, to put it 
into practice, was contradicted by the laws of exterior nature ; 
whereupon, the cause of the discrepancy not being perceived, it 
was deemed sufficient authority, for adopting the strange contra- 



REALIZATION OF IDEAS AND IDEALS. 251 

dictoiy law into logic, the mind thereby declaring its belief, that 
even, what } at that time, it considered its own laws, were not to be relied 
upon, b.) Next, a mind pregnant with the thought of some new 
invention, may have had such clear perception of the idea, as to 
feel sure as fate of its feasibility. . But yet by an oversight of a 
trifling matter, or the absence of correct knowledge relating to a part 
not deemed essential, the successful realization of the idea was 
frustrated ; or if not frustrated in precisely that way, its accomplish- 
ment was prevented, because all the means necessary to its execution, 
could not be commanded. And such cases occurring often, a dis- 
crepancy was supposed to exist between intellect and nature, and 
got its expression by this singular law. c.) Finally, man in youth, 
in all ages, is full of bright ideas, which form themselves into 
" glittering ideals." Nay, nature, intellect, and religion force these 
very ideals upon him. Keligion obliges him to pray for the coming 
of " God's kingdom," or a lieaven on earth. It makes it his duty 
" to become perfect even as his father in heaven is perfect." As long as 
his head and heart are incorrupted, he can even see how such heaven, 
and divine perfection, and various other bright ideas, can be brought 
about as realized ideals upon earth, if the power and means inherent 
in the masses of men, were wisely used and honestly applied, to these 
paramount purposes. That not being the case, and the men of 
human society being constantly kept engaged with the small but 
indispensable matters of bodily necessity, and the grand ideas in the 
minds of all, never being attempted to be realized, as all know their 
separate individual power to be totally inadequate thereto, and yet 
all feeling some sort and share of responsibility, because commands 
so great and categorical are left unfulfilled ; there remained but one, 
and that a desperate way, to propitiate and reconcile man's intellect 
somewhat with itself. But desperate as it was, that way was boldly 
and decisively taken by those, who took it to be their interest to 
make people believe it. Man was therefore unblushingly told to 
his face that his intellect was a consummate fool, that the glorious ideas 
of virtue, goodness, heaven, happiness, and human perfection on earth, 
were all exaggerations, impracticable ideals, which, however true they 
might appear to him in thought, would show themselves unfeasible 
and imaginary, as soon as attempted to be put in p-actice. In this 
manner the very best thoughts of the intellect had to contribute 



252 THE TEMPLE OP TRUTH. 

most to make man disbelieve his own thoughts, and consider him- 
self as from the start created a ninny. 

4. a.) This theory of general disbelief in the practicability of 
ideals of all kinds, and hence also of the highest ideas in reach of 
man's intellect, pressing like a smothering incubus, during a course 
of long centuries, upon the panting bosom of vexed humanity, was at 
last, in the main, exploded by the irruption of the two grand polit- 
ical volcanoes of modern history, the American and French Revolu- 
tions and their results. The first, by establishing, through the 
co-operation of some fifty representatives, chosen by a, until then, 
disjointed constituency, the actual groundwork of a new nation, 
rising out of elements, like no other people ever before, realized in that 
mighty fact, before the open eyes of a gaping world, the grandest and 
most imposing political ideal, ever attempted under the sun. The 
other, by scattering within a few years, all the mighty, wearisome 
labors of political and diplomatic feudalism of nearly fifteen cen- 
turies, like chaff before the wind, made crafty statesmen and haughty 
crowned heads, for the first time, tremblingly believe, that there was 
something of an actualizing capacity, even in the despised and down- 
trodden proletary. b.) Napoleon, by destiny, the child, and finally 
sole 7^e^V-at-law, of the French Revolution, no sooner perceived its 
first outbreak, than the eagle-glance of his genius at once defined 
its true nature and character as : " La carriere ouverte au talent," or 
" the path opened to talent and capacity." A man of performance 
like few in history, he showed the world in our days, besides innu- 
merable other things, that what Brennus and Hannibal had done 
some thousands of years before, and had never since been repeated 
on a large scale, he could do as well, and even better, than they. 
Like Socrates, who meeting Xenophon, to him a stranger, in the 
streets of Athens, for the first time, and discovering in the interest- 
ing countenance of the youth, the future historian's and com- 
mander's latent gifts, calling them out by addressing the invisible 
mind with : " Speak, my son, that I may see thee !" so the great 
Corsican chief pre-eminently possessed not only the keen ken, to 
discover the least traces of intellect and genius, but also the con- 
summate tact for calling them out. Hence his prodigious celerity of 
action and performance, compared with the habitual routine of the 
old snail-course. Knowing " his Pappenlieimers " almost at first 



REALIZATION OP IDEAS AND IDEALS. 253 

sight, he took care to furnish " the tools to him that could handle them;" 
and assisted and supported by forces of such nature, he was almost 
justified in his proud mode of chiding a timid subaltern, for using, 
in describing the execution of an exceedingly " difficult job," the 
term impossible, by telling him : " To let him not again hear that 
imbecile word, as it had no place in his vocabulary." Of the aims, 
pursuits, impulses, and motives, of this mighty man, and their true 
moral value, we may speak upon another occasion, c.) But it was 
not in the fields of politics, diplomacy, and camps alone, wherein 
the famous, ever-memorable year of " '76," inaugurated such a 
mighty change ; for science and art, by numberless inventions and 
discoveries have, since then, also displayed an entirely new life, 
increasing man's producibility and capacity of performance to an 
extent never Jcnown before ; and expanding by steam on land and 
ocean, by railroad and telegraph, his factory system, his trade, com- 
merce, and intercourse, in and through the world, on a truly 
stupendous and gigantic scale. All these realizations were the 
"funeral dirge" of "old fogy" unbelieving imbecility, and con- 
stitute the tangible prophecy of what man shall be able to perform 
by conjoint power, having already, by split and frittered forces, 
actualized the really wonderful. 

5. Since, in Chap, xxiii, it was ascertained and proven beyond 
the possibility of contradiction, that the end of man's existence is 
godlike perfection, it is necessary, in ascertaining how to reach the 
grand aim, to define what portion of the performances thereunto 
appertaining, man is capable of executing individually, by and 
through his personal powers alone, from those, which he can not 
realize single-handed, but must, indispensably, have mere or less 
extraneous help, a.) To this class belongs, a priori, the obedience 
to the great law of human affection, commanding : " TJwu shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself I" For this law signifies quite another 
thing, from that cold, indifferent feeling, which thinks it has 
obeyed the mandate, when abstaining from doing its fellow-man any 
positive harm. But this love of neighbor required, in Matt, xxii, 
39, to be equal to our own love of self, is that true friendship, 
whereby man is faithful to man unto death, which Jonathan felt 
for and showed to David, and John, the disciple, to Jesus, by 
standing beneath the cross, when all the rest of the disciples had 



254 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

fled. Without such friendship, there exists no neighbor-Zove in the 
sense of Christ, hence no fusion of hearts and souls into one an- 
other, whereby alone the sting of egotism is blunted and rendered 
harmless. Without such friendship, man's soul has no real knowl- 
edge of its own noblest sensations, and can therefore hardly love 
God with that transcending ardor of which it is susceptible ; and 
this is the reason why, Matt, xxii, 39, these two highest laws, 
are pronounced to be equal to one anotlier ; because they are both 
equally indispensable to the formation of human perfection. Now, 
as long as man does not find a second man, ready, capable, and will- 
ing, to be his friend, in this sense of Christ, it is arithmetically out 
of his power, to fulfill this heavenly law, and experience its blissful 
joys and benefits. b.~) The same conditions hold good, in another 
case, closely related with the foregoing. In Matt, xviii, 20, we are 
informed, that it requires " two or three to gatlier together in Christ's 
name, in order for Him to be in the midst of them." Why must it 
be no less than two f Why does Christ not say : " If the individual 
man takes up my whole doctrine with his entire heart : I will give 
him all the truth and power I possess ? Why, further, does he not 
say, Matt, v, 48 : " Thou (individual man) shalt," but " you (a 
plural) should be perfect, etc?" The answer to this, flowing from 
the principle of the preceding paragraph, is : 1.) Because one indi- 
vidual man, without a second man out of and alongside of himself, 
unable alone to call the sensation into action, can never hnow or ex- 
perience what friendship, or love of neighbor, in Christ's sense, signi- 
fies. 2.) Because the spirit of Christ, can only reveal itself in its 
expansive force to a number no less than two, who have, by jointly 
embracing Christ's purpose and aim, gathered themselves together, 
in His name, and thus therein become one. And, in this their 
unity, they are the primary and prolific element of a bride, church, 
community, tabernacle or temple of Christ, wherein he loves to 
dwell, to fructify, and fecundate their souls and spirits with His 
joys, virtues, and powers, so that they are able to expand, and 
embrace any number into their blessed god-loving cycle, who sincerely 
desire to enter. 

6. There are ideals which, appertaining somewhat in the nature 
of attributes or qualities to, or effects of, individual character, do 
not depend on numbers for developing progress or application, but 



REALIZATION OF IDEAS AND IDEALS. 255 

chiefly on the gifts, insight, knowledge, skill, energy, and exertion 
of the individual. To this class belong : a.) New inventions. J.) 
The progress of individual man in the practice of virtue, and the 
acquisition of science and wisdom ; and, c.) pre-eminently man's 
practical, individual, or experimental knowledge of, or acquaintance 
with, God ; an acquaintance so surpassingly interesting %&& attractive 
for him who once obtains the merest glimpse thereof, that nothing in 
creation can exercise a similar charm, drawing him toward itself with 
equal might. 

7. a.) Man, before he can do any work whatever, must have an 
intellectual sight of the shape of the work to be performed. Hence 
he must have a pattern or ideal or plan of the same in his mind. 
The more perfect that pattern, ideal, or plan is, the more perfect the 
performed work must become, if coming near or up to it. The same 
holds good pre-eminently, of a more or less perfect pattern of a 
human character, for copying its main traits. Now, as that human 
character must come nearest to perfection, which, in its modes and 
habits of action, comes nearest to the exalted motives and impulses 
that actuate God himself : that individual in human shape, must con- 
stitute such pattern or ideal of character, for all men, who, by the 
unanimous testimony of all competent witnesses, possesses the afore- 
named divine traits in the highest degree. No being, in human 
shape, can do more, as self-forgettingly, placing his own individual 
self-hood so entirely into the background, and devoting himself so 
totally to the whole human race, their paramount interest and welfare, 
than Jesus Christ has done. Hence Schiller, in his " Hymn to 
Joy," calls Him : " A friend given unto us, proved by death /" Hence, 
even a Jean Jacques Rousseau, overwhelmed by the divine 
grandeur and exaltedness of Christ's character, exclaims with 
boundless admiration : " If the life and death of the son of So- 
phronisbe (Socrates), was the life and death of a wise man, the life 
and the death of the Son of Mary (Jesus), was the life and death of a 
God." * &.) Some things are exceedingly rare in this world. There 
is but one individual, whom the overwhelming majority of all the 
rest of men, are willing to call and acknowledge, a Saviour or Re- 
deemer. That Saviour was produced by one nation, — the Hebrew ; 

* Rousseau ;— Emile, ou sur l'Education. 



256 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

and, as until now, He has had no help in the business, and had to do 
all the saving alone, which hitherto has been done in the world ; 
His most anxious endeavor, from the beginning, through life and 
death, up to this hour, has been, and is, to multiply Himself in the 
liearts and minds of other men, until, as it took a whole human 
race to produce one Hebrew nation, and the whole Hebrew nation, 
to produce one Saviour ; He, the one Saviour, in His turn, shall 
succeed in producing an entire saviour nation, c.) Until now, 
no matter in how checkered a mode of movement, the course of des- 
tiny, during the eighteen centuries and upward, now passed through, 
has unmistakably been on the side of the Nazarene. That was 
more piercingly felt, than the Parthian's killing arrow, irresistibly 
boring itself into his bosom, by Julian, the Apostate, when expir- 
ingly sinking from his horse, he surrenderingly exclaimed : " Thou 
hast conquered, Galilean /" The crafty modern conspiracy against 
Him by the philosopher king, * Yoltaire, d'Alembert, Diderot, Con- 
dorcet " et id, etc.," carrying on a formal and systematic war under 
the covert watchword : " Ecrasez Vinfame !" f has finally passed 
away, without leaving any more perceptible traces of effects behind, 
than the ardent but ineffectual hostility of the unfortunate Julian. 
d.) Meanwhile there have recently, within the memory of some 
men still living, been performed some such grave and significant 
moves on the chessboard of history, which utter, in their own, une- 
quivocal manner, in what direction "the manifest destiny" of the 
world at large, and of one certain nation in particular, is most evi- 
dently running. For it would appear, that, after the old nations 
of the world had in vain been invited to the grandest of all possible 
wedding feasts, Matt, xxii, 1, 14, for upwards of seventeen full 
centuries, and all, under the flimsiest pretexts, declining acceptance 
of the proffered eternal distinction, in a national capacity; there 
came at last the youngest of all nations, " born in one day ;" as, dif- 
fering in mode of origination, from all peoples on the globe, it was 
created "ideally," and in the very moment of its birth, pronounced 
aloud to all the world its acceptance of the great wedding invitation. 
The ideal mode of this nation's spiritual birth, was this : " The 
parts of its body had grown up upon perfectly historical soil, all 

* Frederick II, of Prussia. t " Crush the wretch !" 



REALIZATION OF IDEAS AND IDEALS. 257 

reposing on a concrete legitimate basis, but were connected together 
neither by any outward definite ligament, nor by any expressed bond 
of a spiritual nature, when suddenly, one great danger arose, threat- 
ening woe and perdition, to all alike. Then these threatened parts 
selected each a certain number of men, to convene, confer, and 
counsel, what was to be done in the common emergency, e.) These 
men, " fifty-six " in number, after convening and considering the 
grievances of their mutual constituency, while counting them up by 
specific name, were led on by an overruliug, all-pervading spirit that 
did not stop there. But looking at the bottom, cause and source of 
all human wrong and evil in the world, they discarded all princi- 
ples of mere historical justice or law, and pronouncing for those 
inalienable rights innate in man by the Creator's act, they therein, 
making the cause of mankind's rights and wrongs their own, made 
the principles of Christ, as laid down on every page of the New 
Testament, for the first time in the world's history, politically active, 
and in that aspect the declaration of their doings was and is : a polit- 
ical gospel to all nations on earth. /.) Neither did they 
stop there. For, after having first, with an emphasis as earnest 
as death itself, declared and pronounced the primitive indefeasible 
rights bestowed by God upon the nature of man ; they, secondly, 
created themselves ideally a nation, and a saviour nation, for 
one another, at that, by pledging the whole new-born nation, to 
every single member, and every single member to the whole nation, to 
stand with life and limb, " one for all and all for one," to see the 
principles thus declared carried into fullest force and effect. That 
bailing pledge, constituting simultaneously, the ideal melting of 
many parts, " E pluribus TJnum," into one nation thereby born ; 
as also the acceptance of the Lord's wedding invitation, to be 
present a ift wedding garments" at the nuptials of "time and eter- 
nity" Apo. x, 6, 7, will, so far, and as long, as unredeemed, stand 
out, and open, as an unpaid national debt, until discharged to 
the last farthing. Never was there a nation thus born, as it were, 
in a single moment, of a specific day ; never, a nation who by its 
very birth, contracted a national debt, so infinite in amount ; never 
will the paying off, of any liabilities, cause rejoicings and festivities 
comparable to those, which all earth and all heaven will celebrate, — 
when the people of this American " Union " shall fulfill unto 



258 THE TEMPLE OP TRUTH. 

themselves, and "the rest of mankind" what they promised to man, 
before God and the world, by their immortal first National Congress, 
of July 4, 1776. 

8. a.) In Chaps, ix and xx, we have found, that man (who exists 
in this world as a being of necessity, who had no voice, when, hoio, 
and where, he should be placed, being hence, in the most eminent 
sense a stranger upon earth, and) is a being composed in every indi- 
vidual, of three main forces, which we defined as body, soul, and 
mind, each one of which, having its own needs, wants, and desires, 
differing from those of the other. In looking at the individual 
men and women, which compose the present generation of man, 
it can be read in their countenances, and when directly questioned 
upon the point, nearly all will unhesitatingly answer, that these 
wants of the triple force of their being are but deficiently, and 
hardly ever harmoniously, gratified. From this, it is clear, that 
neither the body, the soul, nor the mind of man have reason to be 
fully satisfied, with the exterior form and figure of life, as it now is. 
The expression upon the faces of all, seems with Schiller, to ex- 
claim : " With a thousand masts of hope we have sailed into life's 
ocean;" but, one by one, our masts perish, and we are flung upon 
the merciless wave, as a helpless, joyless, desolate wreck, b.) When 
the limited faculties of the individual man are closely examined, and 
the circumstances taken into view which still further and increas- 
ingly cripple his force by keeping him in ignorance, indigence, 
poverty, and often in life-long dependence, we surely will no longer 
wonder, at finding him little pleased with a destiny thus gloomy. 
For, it is evident and clear, that thus conditioned, he is neither in 
the situation naturally demanded by the forces of his being, to exer- 
cise their various functions healthily and joyfully, for striving after 
the grand aim of his existence ; nor is he in such a position as 
Christ desires him to be in, so as to enable him, to make himself 
constantly more and more perfect, " even as his Father in heaven is per- 
fect." c.) Hence the unwritten amount of unexpressed misery of all 
sorts, silently endured, by men and families, everywhere ; the inse- 
curity of health, life, property, and happiness, under present cir- 
cumstances ; the terrible increase of crime from year to year ; the 
fearful number of victims, as felons, suicides, slain, inmates of peni- 
tentiaries, lunatic and other asylums, hospitals, poorhouses, not to 



REALIZATION OF IDEAS AND IDEALS. 259 

mention the terrible state of things, subsisting within an unknown 
number of unhappy families ; all conjointly and with one irresisti- 
ble voice proclaim : there is somewhere something radically wrong in 
our mode of existence. 

9. a.) The preceding considerations have, in our days, forced 
almost generally, upon all reflecting intellects, the abiding convic- 
tion : 1.) That the unaided individual man, single-handed and 
unconnected with any of his fellow-beings, can not possibly reach 
that aim and end of his existence, which nature, reason, and religion 
combinedly, reveal to him, as God's supreme pleasure and para- 
mount will. 2.) That, hence, men conscientiously desirous of doing 
God's will, and finding themselves surrounded by conditions, 
making it next to, if not quite, impossible, for themselves and fami- 
lies, to do so, in the most essential particulars, are enjoined by their 
highest temporal and eternal interest to cast about for discovering 
an efficient remedy against these fearful evils. For life is short, but 
eternity has no end ; and he who jeopardizes the infinite for securing 
the poor enjoyment of the transitory moment, strikes &fooVs bar- 
gain. Matt, xvi, 26. b.) Since all men have equally been created 
for one and the same chief aim, and nations are only aggregations 
of individual men ; nations and their governments are bound to 
respect and obey the will of God as mucli as the single man. Hence 
it is their duty as it is to their highest interest and advantage, to 
shape their course and public measures in such a manner, that every 
member in community, is thereby assisted in perpetually progressing 
nearer and nearer towards perfection, — the everlasting aim of every 
one's existence, c.) Such, and such alone, is the only legitimate 
object of all true government. If a majority of people, or a pre- 
ponderating body of men, in any nation, by the possession of means, 
or a control of public opinion, are capable of influencing the course of 
their government, and also thus do induce it to employ its mighty 
forces less benignly and promotive of the supreme and universal 
welfare of the whole ; every participant in the unrighteous trans- 
action will be held as responsible, before the all-weighing tribunal of 
this universe, for the precise amount of his individual share therein, 
as for every other one of his private deeds. 

10. a.) God is not only the creator, but also everlastingly the 
owner and proprietor^ of this universe and all beings and things in 

22 



260 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

it. His method of governing and managing His vast estate, is in 
part based upon the principle of copartnership, and joint-stock inter- 
est. For, whilst every individual thing and being, in its place and 
sphere, is, upon the whole, ruled and governed, in all essential mat- 
ters, by its relations to the universe and its particular forces ; so in 
turn, every particular force, in its spot and cycle, helps and assists to 
influence, determine and rule a certain number of parts, and in, with 
and through them, the mighty whole, of which they form con- 
stituent elements, b.) But, in this joint method of governing and 
managing things, every force, is inclosed within a specific cycle, the 
boundaries of which its operations can not transcend ; whilst, at the 
same time, all the separate actions of each individual force, must 
necessarily react upon itself, and thereby chiefly contribute to shape 
its individual condition or destiny. That grand infinite cycle of ac- 
tion, inclosing all the bounded cycles of the separate forces within 
itself, God has reserved for His own separate share, and the forces 
of the finite cycles have no influence thereinto, or only such as God 
admits, for His own transcending specific purposes, c.) These con- 
siderations are to help us to duly apprehend, what is to be under- 
stood by the term of a saviour nation ; what particular function, 
branch, or part of the business of salvation, or soul-healing, is to be 
assigned to the same, as its proper and appropriate office, and what 
part Christ, as the Saviour in chief, has forever reserved for him- 
self. In the first instance then, let it be most deeply impressed, 
upon the mind of every man : 1.) That it is God who creates every 
man into, and with, a body; 2.) That only by and through that 
body, the minds of men exist, approachably for one another; 3.) 
That the body of one man is the woi'k of God, precisely as much as 
that of another ; 4.) That hence he, who dishonors the human body, 
in himself or another, dishonors God's own handiwork, and therein 
directly dishonors the infinite Creator himself. Does any one doubt 
this ? If so, come along, and we will next, show you, what kind of 
actions, God promises to recompense with eternal rewards, and 
threatens their omission, or the commission of opposites, with ever- 
lasting punishment. In Luke xvi, 19, 30, you find the parable of 
Dives and poor Lazarus. What positive injury did the. rich man, 
by actual deed of his, inflict upon the poor sick man lying at his 
gate, to be thus terribly punished ? Why, none at all in that way ; 



REALIZATION OF IDEAS AND IDEALS. 261 

but he let his suffering body perish by neglect, in taking, in haughty, 
heartless indifference, no notice of him whatever, using the wealth, in 
his possession, being forever God's property, only loaned to man for 
temporary need and use, as if it were absolutely his own, and in the 
cruel treatment of the poor man, showed his base ingratitude to God 
for all the gifts received of him ; and, whereupon, God in turn 
showed him, that the good he omitted to do the body of poor Laza- 
rus, who being God's representative, God regarded and treated as if 
done to His own ineffable self. And, in order to convince man that 
this is the version of God's retributive law, let us turn to Matt, xxv, 
31, 46, and see what kind and sort of actions and deeds those are, 
which, at the day of th.e great judgment are rewarded by the inherit- 
ance of heaven's boundless joys, and what constitutes the cause of 
total exclusion from the same. Listen : verse 35. " For I was 
hungered, and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink : 
I ivas a stranger, and ye took me in : 36. Naked, and ye clothed me : 
I was sick, and ye visited me : I was in prison, and ye came unto me : 
40. Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 

OF THE LEAST of these MY BRETHREN, JQ have DONE IT UNTO ME." 

And, on the other hand, verse 45, His answer to the inhuman and 
unmerciful is : " Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least 
of these, ye did it not to Me." 

11. a.) Now, if men should imagine, that the endless penalty 
here threatened to be attached to apparently a mere temporary and. 
transiently brief action, was disproportionate, we reply, first : Man 
has no voice in the making of the laws of the universe, and he is 
too young and ignorant to be able to criticise and pass judgment 
thereon. Secondly : If a man perishes by starvation, thirst, want 
of shelter, nakedness, freezing, disease, and gloomy despair in 
prison, because of my neglect : I am as actually his murderer as 
if killing him outright. Hence the action, instead of being 
transient and brief, is in its effects actually endless, and can never, 
not even by Omnipotence itself, be revocable. Now, if God, as 
Christ declares, considers all actions done by man to man, as if 
done by man to Himself; and, as a shudder of horror is piercing 
every naturally-feeling human heart, at the mere thought of & par- 
ricide : what kind of punishment would even a jury of twelve 
human beings, composed of the most tender-hearted men and 



262 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

women, devise for the creature monster, that attempted to murder his 
creator, in the person of his proxy f Logically inevitable as these 
sequences follow from their premises, we hope to see the era soon 
break in upon us, when and ivliere men shall no longer need the fear 
of punishment to deter them from the peipetration of evil, nor even 
the imitation of reward to induce them to the performance of 
goodness and virtue ; but act always from living love to God and man. 
b.) Here then, we have five specific items, all of bodily necessity, to 
which it is made obligatory for man to attend for one another, under 
the highest injunctions, whenever needed. These may be ranged 
under the heads of: 1.) Food ; 2.) Shelter or a home; 3.) Raiment ; 
4.) Health and comfort ; and 5.) Freedom of motion and action. 
As soon as any one of these five indispensables is absent, man is no 
longer a full-conditioned human being, and must, of necessity, more or 
less, pine and suffer. Any man relieving another, when suffering in 
one or the other of these particulars, is saving him out of that 
harm, and is, to that extent, his saviour ; and, as all men, without 
exception, are enjoined, under the highest considerations, to save 
cne another unconditionally, when pressed down by any one of these 
privations, that, which thus is made the duty of all 'men, is most 
emphatically the duty of the nation, as the representative of them 
all, and the repository of their cmijoint power. Hence it is the 
bounden duty of the nation, enjoined by nature, reason, equity, and 
God's law, to be the saviour of all its members, out of evils they may 
suffer by absence of any of the above necessities, c.) Any nation 
which discharges these, its duties, toward all its children and mem- 
bers, honestly and faithfully may, in full justice, lay claim to the 
noble and divine title of a saviour nation. And, wherever there 
is thus a visible power, to take proper care of the body of man, it 
will be easy for Christ and our heavenly Father, to attend to the 
rest of the process of salvation, so that with the body, the soul and 
spirit also, and thus the whole man is saved. As long, however, 
as in but a very small minority of a people, this saviour spirit has 
become actively awake in the heart, and they living far apart from, 
and without knowing, one another ; and hence entirely without all 
and any system of mutual co-operation ; it will be absolutely impos- 
sible for them, particularly in times of public suffering like the pres- 
ent (the winter of 1857-8), to stem the torrent of general misery, 



REALIZATION OF IDEAS AND IDEALS. 263 

rnshing with billows of ieart-rending bitterness, through the width 
and breadth of the land, d.) It is, however, in the school of ad- 
versity, where men collectively have usually to learn their best 
lessons of wisdom. And, if the present Utter one is duly made use 
of, it may result in a national gain, of an enduring value, beyond 
all calculation. On the one hand, it will open people's eyes to the 
necessity of stronger and more efficient help in cases of need, than 
the individual good-will of generous hearts is able to render. It 
will teach men to cast about, in order to learn in what manner the 
mighty arm of the nation can be made to perform that part of God's 
will, which to fulfill, the individual man lacks power. Now, all 
that the people of a nation need, to make them in truth and 
reality a saviour nation for all its members, is the possession of 
that mutual good-will toward one another, which resides in the 
Spirit of Christ toward all men. Where there is such will t there 
is a way seen for the accomplishment of every thing useful, gener- 
ous, and good, 

12. Before concluding this chapter, it appears proper that we 
should analyze and define the terms ideal and power, somewhat 
more clearly and definitely, so that the reader may be enabled to 
grasp the whole of the thought connected with their use, wherever 
hereafter by us employed, a.) The term ideal, which, in lieu of 
the French term beau-ideal, we use as a substantive noun, of which, 
in several places, we have heretofore given some defining explana- 
tions, denotes a thought or an idea, inclosed or framed within some 
specific mental picture, form, or body, by which embodiment and 
machinery, such ideals may (as those that are realized, have been 
already), visibly and palpably be actualized into exterior esistence, to 
the perception of man's senses. Hence, from this, it becomes evi- 
dent that by ideals, generally, realizations of ilwught are designed to 
be denoted, superior and more perfect, than those already existing. 
Ideals, therefore, may briefly be defined, as mental pictures of per- 
fection of the class of objects, to which they respectively belong. 
I.) Now, as in the prevailing condition of human affairs, man finds 
ample occasion and opportunity of perceiving and suggesting the 
applicability of improvement almost anywhere, wherever he casts his 
eye ; and, as by new inventions and discoveries, he, from time to 
time, constantly introduces, things and their uses, entirely unknown 



264 THE TEMPLE OF TBOTH. 

to the past ; the introduction of every such really new improvement 
is the realization of an ideal, and this process is destined to con- 
tinue, until the perfect ideal, as the very best thing of its kind, has 
been successfully accomplished, and by its all-surpassing superiority 
forced itself into ultimate, universal use and sway. 

13. The force by which any thought, hence any ideal is ex- 
ternally realized, or brought into actual existence, is called power, 
ability, being a capacity of action, production, creation, performance. 
All power, to be intelligently applicable in the execution of purpose 
and design, must be incased within a regularly organized machinery. 
The most proximate, and most perfect of all known machineries, man 
has got from God and nature, in his own bodily organization itself ; 
and he, the man, is, with all the forces known to him within him- 
self, the primary^ower and motor of the miraculous instrument, to 
the infinity of uses, for which it is, alike wonderfully adapted. The 
customary phrase, which calls man, " the lord of creation," is, there- 
fore, neither incorrect, untrue, or merely self-adulatory, but expres- 
sive of the actual simple fact, that of all forces perceptibly active in 
nature, man, even as a single individual, is a primary power, that 
surpasses them all, beyond comparison and computation. Man is, 
therefore, for himself, as well, as for his fellow-beings, the pri- 
mary element of all lands of power. But man is power only in 
proportion as he is a unit in physical, moral, and mental health, and 
as his domestic, social, political, and cosmical relations are of a 
wlwlesome and unitary character. For man, when his body is pros- 
trated by disease, his will powerlessly flung about by raging and 
conflicting passions, and his mind dethroned by idiocy, deliriousness, 
or insanity, or his presence gives no joy in his Jiome, in the society 
of the wise and good, to his country, to the world, and the universe i 
can no longer be regarded as an actual, but rather as a fettered, 
imprisoned power, the capacity for action of which, has either been 
injured or destroyed, or is neutralized, by opposing and antagonistic 
forces. Hence, it is clear, that the capacity of man, to be and con- 
stitute a power, depends primarily, from the degree of perfection, in 
natural powers and gifts, originally bestowed and implanted by 
God and nature into his physical and mental organization. For 
thereupon depend the various possible degrees of : a.) The perfect 
human individual ; 1.) as a child or adult ; 2.) as boy or girl ; 3.) 



REALIZATION OF IDEAS AND IDEALS. 265 

as youth or maiden ; and, 4.) as man or woman. Upon the con- 
ditions of these elements depend next : b.) The perfect family, and 
its relations, resulting from the qualities of its various members : 
1.) As husband or wife ; 2.) father or mother ; 3.) parent or child ; 
4.) brother or sister ; and, 5.) relative or friend. From perfectly 
created and organized individuals, acquiring, by perfectly-formed 
domestic relations in families, a perfect incipient development of 
true social qualities and habits, emanate : c.) The perfect society, 
community, people, nation, or state. For the man who, as a hus- 
band and father, is that same truly, by ardent love and passionate 
friendship, will, with these same qualities, as well when acting in 
the capacity of a ruling magistrate and official functionary, as when 
in the position of a private citizen, denizen, or inhabitant, be 
equally a public-spirited patriot and philanthropist, active, useful, 
virtuous, and self-sacrificing wherever and whenever duty calls 
him to action. From the perfection of man, in all the preceding 
and collateral relations, results finally : d.) The perfect church, or 
man's perfect friendship and union with God, nature, mankind, 
and the whole realm of Deity's boundless domain. This union 
makes man not only merciful, kind, benign, and bounteous, toward 
all sentient beings, but by disclosing to him the wonderful mys- 
teries of being and existence, in God, nature, and man, teaches him 
how God is perfect, in absolute, unutterable goodness, and how 
man, by true love to God, and divine love to man, becomes perfect, 
as his Father in heaven is perfect, and by anc^ through that Father, 
forever progresses "onward and upward" upon the endless path of 
that perfection. 

14. In Chapters ix and xx, in analyzing the nature of man, we 
have found him composed of body, soul, and mind. Hence, the 
perfection and power of the individual man, depends originally, 
altogether, first, on the amount of innate force and capacity, be- 
stowed by the Creator's act, in the primary instance upon each of 
these component integral vital forces of man's being, and next upon 
their more or less consummate development to a perfect harmony 
and unity, to and among one another, effected by the discipline of 
education, training, and habit, so that the body is healthy, vigorous, 
and strong, the soul virtuous, joyous, and happy, and the intellect 
enlightened, well-informed, and wise. When thus conditioned, the 



266 THE TEMPLE OF TKUTH. 

human individual may be regarded as the true representative, as 
well of the universe as of God ; for it exhibits the attributes of 
beauty, loveliness, or order; of truth, reality, or wisdom; of goodness, 
creative capacity, or power, all acting, controlled by the felicity, beati- 
tude, and divine impulse of supreme love, and aspiring, in perfect 
harmony and concert, to one grand godlike end and aim. Now, in 
proportion as this harmony of forces and qualities, has been 
developed and accomplished in the human individual, as man or 
woman, they each therein present a specimen of perfection, ena- 
bling them of being, and acting out perfectly, what any and all the 
domestic and public relations, of any sort, whereinto they may be 
placed and called, shall in any mode or manner, demand of them. 
Tor, the same virtuous qualities and habits, which produce the 
loving and blending unity among the forces of body, soul, and 
spirit, in the single individual, are those which mutually attract, 
admire, esteem, and love one another in the youth and maiden, which 
constitute the real ardor of all affection, between husband and wife, 
parent and child, sister and brother, relative and friend, man and 
neighbor, and man and God. For, it is from these whence germinate 
the true felicity of the domestic fireside ; the untold sweetness in 
the relation of genuine friendship; the ennobling enjoyment of 
lieartfelt social intercourse; the exalting, soul- enlarging joys of true 
patriotism and philanthropy, pressing world and universe to their 
glowing bosom ; and finally those divinest traits in human character, 
resulting from man's \ intimate intercourse with God, blending the 
force of masadine virtue, with the tenderest sensitiveness of the 
noblest, most ardent feminine affection, whereof Christ is the realized 
exemplification in consummate perfection. 

15. Thus it is perceived that unity and concord among the sepa- 
rate forces of the human individual, constitute the strength or 
power of the single man or ivoman ; that unanimity, and concert in 
feeling, sentiment and aspiration, among the members of the 
domestic circle, constitute the vigor and power, of the family, it 
being the element as well as miniature picture of society, state, and 
church, in their smallest compass ; and, finally, as communities, 
peoples, nations, conjointly organized as a state or church, are only 
compounds from individuals and families : their strength and 
power depend primarily upon the degree of perfection, present and 



REALIZATION OF IDEAS AND IDEALS. 267 

actual in their union. For, if such union is consummate, such com- 
monwealth will exhibit the beautiful picture of one happy family, 
upon a scale stupendously enlarged ; wherein each man is animated 
with the purpose of the whole, and the whole, in its turn, is ever 
using its vast force, for promoting all-sided perfection, as the ever- 
lasting aim, end, and purpose pursued by every single one. a.) As 
soon as any human community shall post itself upon those eternal 
principles, which, in Chapters xxii and xxiii, we have found unani- 
mously expressed, by nature, reason, and reliyion, as the triune voice 
and revelation of God's will and man's destination : that simple 
fact will also be the real commencement for fulfilling that divine 
destination ; inasmuch, as it will be identical with the " coming down 
from God, out of heaven, of the New Jerusalem," Rev. xxi, 2, being 
" the holy city," that is, such a perfect and beautiful organization of 
human society, consummated by divine wisdom itself, that the 
eternal Lord defines the same as his " adorned bride." b.) That 
social "bride" of the all-peaceable " divine Lamb," possessing "the 
gun, not needing another gun," * will be " God's realized kingdom on 
earth," consisting of "the people" of the true " saints of the Most 
High," Dan. vii, 27, who shall inherit " all dominion " and power, 
since the old "Dragon" of human hostility and discord, shall en- 
tirely be " bound " amidst them. Rev. xx, 2. Hence, as there is 
neither hostile drawback, antagonism, or reaction, among these peo- 
ple, their power is pure, unfettered, and sufficient for realizing, in an 
uninterrupted series, all the grand, personal as well as national, ideals, 
which heavenly wisdom will show and disclose. Thus, then, the 
great consummation of all things, the final gloriously grand develop- 
ment of mankind's transcending destiny, predicted by the Lord's 
true prophets in many beautiful passages, will, eventually, lead to 
God's own presence among His people. For, it is written : " Be- 
hold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with 
them, and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be with 
them, and be their God." " And God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor 
crying ; neither shall there be any more pain : for the former things 
are passed away." Rev. xxi, 3, 4. 



♦Emerson,— ''''English Traits. 
23 



268 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

CONTEIBUTIVE MATERIALS APPERTAINING TO THE METHOD OF 
MAKING A PEOPLE, A SAVIOUR NATION, OR LEADING THEM TO 
PERFECTION. 

1. In Chaps, iv and v, we have described a young couple, grown 
up and educated under influences, favorable to progress in virtue 
and perfection. Having, for reasons stated, formed the design of 
removing to a large metropolis, they did carry that intention into 
effect, and have by this time, become acquainted and familiar, by 
actual experience, with city life, and human nature, as it develops 
itself under the motely circumstances, of its infinitely variegated 
conditions. In a confidential letter to an intimate friend, they in- 
form him, by a sort of report, of the progress they have made, 
and the success they have met with, in their proceedings thus far. 
In that letter they say : 

2. "You remember, how buoyant were our hearts and how 
exultant and expectant our hopes, when removing to this city, in 
view of the grand and glorious harvest, which we calculated to 
reap, from the fruition of the great, noble principles, that with 
supermundane joy, expanded our bosoms. We designed, namely, 
as you know, if opportunity should in anywise favor us, making 
the attempt of ' laying down the 'practical groundwork, for the eventual 
redemption of (he whole human race out of all misery, and of finally 
leading all its members to perfection and happiness.'' It is an im- 
portant discovery, accidentally made, some time since, and by far 
not as widely known, as its value deserves, namely, that : the best 
and most speedy way of learning a thing, is, ' to engage in teaching 
the same to others.' Now, in our attempt at teaching men l the 
science ' to make all mankind perfect and happy, we very soon dis- 
covered, how little we really knew thereof ourselves. But 'where 
there is a will, there is a way ;' and as we were, in the bottom of 
our souls, convinced of the absolute existence of such a 'divine 
seience,' our very ignorance of its true character, became the most 
stirring incentive to make ourselves master of its angelic facts and 
syllogisms, with all the speed at our command. We have made 



MATERIALS, ETC., FOR FORMING A SAVIOUR NATION. 269 

some progress in this heavenly knowledge ; but, as heretofore, 
there was nowhere a perfect and full system of divine truth, in scien- 
tific form and completion, in existence; and we being unable to 
bring forth such an one ourselves, this greatly felt want, retarded 
as well our own progress, to a fuller perception of the celestial 
light, as also the conversion of others, to the embracing of the 
infinite truth that inspires us. 

3. " But, although until recently, w r e lacked the perfect system of 
which we felt the need, we yet were in possession of a goodly 
number of precious truths that forever belong to it ; and, by the 
good use we made of the same, we succeeded in making the time 
spent in this place, not only useful to our own progress, but also 
to strew out a great deal of good seed, destined to germinate into 
heavenly sprouts, ere-long. The glorious idea, which has become 
master of our hearts and minds, makes them leap with joy and ex- 
tasy, at every step, leading us, even were it but one inch, nearer to 
the grand goal. And its never exhaustible power keeps us joyful, 
contented, and of even temper, while enduring toil and tribulation, 
trouble and vexation, for promoting the happiness of man's entire 
race. The value of every human act is contained in the motive, pur- 
pose, design, from which it flows. Where that motive is truly 
divine, no matter how exteriorly small and apparently insignificant 
the material shapes therein engaged may be ; an atmosphere of 
heaven, at all times, invisibly surrounds such heart, soothing and 
feasting it with thoughts and feelings, constituting the joys and 
nourishment by which the immortal celestials themselves subsist. 

4. " We have succeeded in inducing quite a number of people 
to be of one and the same faith with us, namely : aspiring sincerely 
with us for the same great aim of all humanity's perfection, and hap- 
piness. We brought them to this firm conviction, by a series of 
truths, something like the following : a.) All human things on 
earth, have had, and must have, a beginning. All beginnings are 
usually small, and ordinarily difficult. The three to four hundred 
millions of human beings, now constituting the probable number 
on earth of the ' so-called ' Christians, of the various denominations, 
have all sprung, first : from Christ's single and solitary being ; and, 
next, from the also small number of one hundred and twenty primitive 
Christians, assembled together, for Christ's most cherished purpose, 



270 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

on the day of Pentecost, at Jerusalem, A. D. 34. There were also but 
three men, whose virtuous and patriotic union incipiently effected 
and eventually secured the freedom of the people of Switzerland ; 
and history abounds in facts of a similar nature, all, in general, 
proving the smallness and difficulty of beginnings, b.) Further : 
they who know Christ in any degree, must know absolutely, that 
the purpose for which he came on earth, for which he worked and 
taught, labored, lived, and died : was no other than leading all hu- 
manity to perfection and its heaven. Hence all, who honestly believe 
in Christ, must embrace this His purpose, most determinately, as 
their very own. This purpose embraces ' love to God above all 
things;' and includes likewise ' loving our neighbor as ourselves.' 
How, where we thus in reality love a human being, it gives us the 
greatest joy, to do him or her all manner of good, and protect them 
against oil possible harm, since that is wJiat we do to ourselves. He, 
therefore, who thus loves all men, has in that very love, not only an 
exhaustless source of happiness and joy, which the self-dooming 
man-hater can not know ; but through that love, the lover is pro- 
tected against doing men any evil. For how can I do harm and 
injury to those I truly love ? c.) Now, the one hundred and 
twenty primitive Christians, by sincerely embracing Christ's own 
purpose into their innermost heart, thereby became not only 'one 
heart and one soul,' among and with one another, but all of them 
also became of one spirit with Christ himself, whereby they became 
fitted for receiving God's Holy Grhost or Spirit, to fill their soul 
with the joy, essence, and power, and their mind with the light, 
truth, and wisdom of heaven itself : so Christ, who declares Him- 
self spiritually present at all times, Matt, xxviii, 20, also promises to 
all men, who, at any time, truly embrace His ever-living purpose, 
and fixedly post themselves upon His eternal platform of princi- 
ples, first : ' That any two who shall agree on earth in asking any 
thing of his Father in heaven, the same shall be done.' Matt, xviii, 
19 ; and, next : ' That He will pray the Father, to give us another 
comforter, to abide with us forever,' who ' shall teach us all things.' 
John xiv, 16, 26. And, finally, He (Christ), prays in the follow- 
ing sublime strains, for all men, who, at any period, shall embrace 
His divine truth, proving therein, at the same time, that 'perfect 
unity of tlie actors in purpose, sentiment, and action,'' is the life and 



MATERIALS, ETC., FOE FORMING A SAVIOUR NATION. 271 

soul of His system, saying : ' Neither pray I for these alone (His 
then disciples and followers), but for them also, which shall believe 
on Me through their word ;' ' That they all may be one ; as thou, 
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also maybe one in us : that 
tlie world may believe that tlwu hast sent me.' John xvii, 20, 21. 
d.) Now, if the three hundred and fifty millions of nominal 
followers of Christ on earth, were in this manner united in and 
with Christ, and his all-loving purpose, as one man, what should we 
see ? Why, we should behold the entire prodigious mass, perme- 
ated and pervaded by a conflagration of heavenly love as intense 
and all-melting as the one beatifying the hearts of men on the first 
day of Pentecost. We should see how this love-fire would show 
these men, that they had been blind before, and had never, until 
now, known the true value of man. For they would run around, 
apparently, to the uninitiated, like possessed, but all the time hunting 
and inquiring, to discover suffering human beings, oppressed by mis- 
eries and calamities of one sort or another, so that they should have 
an opportunity, by effectually relieving the tortured victims from 
their cruel pangs, of whatever sort, to feast themselves upon those 
exquisite morsels of divine voluptuousness, ever flowing from actions 
of love, removing human pain, engendering bliss and joy, and causing 
the tear of heartfelt joy and gratitude to glisten alike in the hence- 
forth ever true brotherly eyes, of relieved, as well as reliever. But, 
since a condition of things, as glorious as this, is at this moment, no 
more than ' a pious wish,' or 'heavenly dream,' we must, for this 
time, let it rest, and put our own shoulders, practically, in such 
manner to the wheel of conditions and circumstances surround- 
ing us, of which, experience and common sense inform us con- 
jointly, that it is, at present, the only resource left open, from 
which to gather the force and power which indispensably we need. 
5. " This method left us, is, to gain and convert to our convic- 
tion, by the force of its inherent truth, one single man, after another. 
One only, added to ourselves, make three. If we three double 
ourselves, say, in one month, there are six of us at the end of the 
month. And continuing the process, at the same rate, there will, 
at the end of the first twelvemonths, be, the already highly respect- 
able number of 12,328 human individuals. And the same operation 
protracted for one year longer, will give us at its end, 50,750,208, or 



272 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

very nearly fifty-one millions of human souls, redeemed from blindness 
and error to the brightness of solar truth. If the beneficent process 
should, with equal success, be carried on one single half year longer, 
we should, after the lapse of five-and-a-fourth months thereof, 
hardly have any conversions left to be made ; for, at the end of the 
sixth month, our whole number gained would be a fraction over 
sixteen hundred and twenty- four millions, which is supposed to 
overrun the actual number of the human race on earth, believed to 
count about one thousand millions, at least one-third. These figures 
contain both comfort and inspiration for those who '■hunger and 
thirst after righteousness,'' Matt, v, 6, by showing in how brief a 
period of time, the most stupendous operations can be accomplished, 
particularly when every new force gained, is instantly transformed 
into an active medium for expanding the arena of conquest. In 
Eev. chap, vii, verse 4, we are told that the number of those 
originally sealed as 'followers of the Lamb,' and participants of his 
millennial glories, amount to one hundred and forty-four thou- 
sand, or twelve times twelve thousand individuals. And in verse 
9, as also belonging to the 'ransomed of the Lord,' we are 
told of a far greater number, a number really so large, that it is 
actually described as : ' Lo, a great multitude, which no man could 
number.'' Now, whatever the amount of these numbers may be, 
they can in no event be larger than that of the whole race. And 
even it, as above shown, could, in the short space of less than two 
and a half years, if the Lord saw fit to have it so, become con- 
verted to the truth, through a machinery presenting ostensibly 
nothing super-extraordinary in its operations, whatever else its 
concealed virtues might be. Hence, it may be assumed as a settled 
matter, that, when the period of these apocalyptic events shall 
itself have actually arrived, it will take up comparatively but little 
time, to carry them all out into accomplished fact." Thus far the 
fragmentary report of our young couple's letter, the ideas of which, 
it will be perceived, are perfectly identical with our own. 

6. From what, precedingly, we have said, the meaning and sig- 
nification we attach to the term "saviour nation,'" can not, easily, 
any longer, be misunderstood by any one. For, thereby we mean a 
people whose heart is ruled by the spirit of Christ; the purpose of 
whose commonwealth is one and the same with that of God, to "wipe 



MATERIALS, ETC., FOR FORMING A SAVIOUR NATION. 273 

off all tears from human eyes" Rev. xxi, 4 ; and " to feed their 
minds upon the joy-pastures cf mountain-sized truths and ideas," 
Ezek. xxxiv, 14 ; to remove every vestige of human misery within 
their power's reach; to insure to every human being a secured and 
liappy home, actually in real essence "inalienable ;" to increase its 
charms for the inmates, by therein realizing " that attractive indus- 
try," for which they received the "gifts;" to raise and encourage 
its productive action, by securing to it its entire result ; to transform 
the aspect of exterior nature, in connection with men's Iwme, home- 
stead and all their surroundings, into a paradise of beauty, comfort, 
neatness, cleanliness and health; to change and confirm, by the 
powers vested in them, Matt, xviii, 18, the inner condition of every 
participant's consciousness, into a heaven of highest, godlike joys t 
wherein he feels that, although his beatitude is already inexpressi- 
ble, he is still conscious of its perpetual increase. 

7. In claiming all the foregoing, for every human being who is a 
member of our " saviour nation," or within reach of its action, we 
thereby do not, by any means, design to be understood as claiming 
only those good gifts thus specifically named, and not laying claim 
to those others, which we have omitted, specifying explicitly ; but, 
on the contrary, we claim them all, the unnamed and even unknown, 
no less than the named and the known. For, inasmuch, as the very 
subsistence, of a true saviour nation, is irrefutable proof, that " they 
seek (and have found'), the kingdom of Qod and his righteousness;" 
they are thereby clearly entitled to the fulfillment of the thereto 
attached, solemn, and explicit promise, that : " All other good things 
slmll be added unto them." Matt, vi, 33. And since He, the mighty 
great one, whom we call and adore as our God, is as absolutely 
and essentially present, on this, His, and our own, earth, as in any 
other loccdity, in His grand domain : He can, by blessing us with His 
light, wisdom, and the opening of our innermost perception, make us 
to understand, and capacitate us to enjoy, all the most exquisite joys, 
beatitudes, and extasies, to be found within any heaven extant within 
His all bountiful, ever-glorious dominion. 

8. There is a principle of imitation, existing in man, which lies 
at the bottom of what is called "fashion," and other kindred phe- 
nomena in human nature, which, as yet, is not only little applied to 
his 'practical benefit, but is also, only just now, beginning to become 



274 THE TEMPLE OF TKUTH. 

sufficiently understood, to make such beneficent application possible. It 
may, for instance, be easily observed, that whatever a considerable 
number of young people of a certain age, become induced to under- 
take, in regard to the introduction of something new, in the line of dress> 
amusements, enjoyments, manners, mode of speech, etc., etc., acts 
by, as it were, almost irresistible attraction, upon the large majority 
of the rest, so that the force of this influence, may be inferred, 
from the adage it has given origin to, to- wit : " Rather out of the 
world than out of fashion." Next, it is perceived that all labor, and 
hence also the hardest and most repulsive occupation, loses its 
repelling features for man, generally, in proportion to the increase of 
the number therein engaged. Hence, even the dread terrors of ivar, 
and the incessant toil, dangers, and perils of an active soldier's life, 
added to the rigidity of military discipline, do, by dint of the large 
numbers, composing great armies, participating therein, not only 
become endurable for all or most of those therein engaged ; but even 
acquire, for not a small number thereof, such attractive charms, as 
to induce them to prefer a military, to any other mode of life, from 
actual choice. Further, the same principle is active and visible, in 
modified shapes, in the joyous and zealous activity, infused into its 
individual members by a cause, supported by men, knowing them- 
selves strong by knowledge, means, and numbers ; it shows itself in 
the eagerness with which people go to, and the secret enjoyment they 
feel in, the presence of large bodies of men, such as they meet at 
churches, political, and other conventions, balls, social parties, places of 
amusement, and public resort, etc.; and last, but by no means least, 
by the a^-conquering inspiration and cfea^-defying enthusiasm, visi- 
ble, more or less, in all revolutions, or political and religious struggles, 
wherewith the cause of the many, or ALL, penetrates and inspirits 
the single individual, so entirely, as to enable and urge him, to stake 
and sacrifice his all and himself, a self-immolating victim, at the altar 
of the public good. 

9. Thus, it is apparent, that, as the single drop of water, where 
ever it can, is forced to unite with a second drop, then with the 
little rill of a streamlet, running into a creek, next with it into a 
river, wherewith to empty finally into, and unite with, the waters of 
the boundless ocean : so man is attracted to man, to society, commu- 
nity, the nation, and finally, the whole human race. This unques- 



MATERIALS, ETC., FOR FORMING A SAVIOUR NATION. 275 

tionable power of human masses, over the force of the single in- 
dividual, wherever it has an opportunity to make itself available, 
furnishes unmistakable indication, that the whole mass of mankind, 
though existing ostensibly, in time, in the shape of split up fragments 
to the number of a thousand million individuals, constitutes, never- 
theless, in a mystical, supersensual manner, one inexpressibly grand, 
wonderfully, co-organized being, whereof each one as a member, for 
weal or woe, is indissolubly bound, like part, to the whole, by the 
sacred bonds of an all-conjoining solidarity. Hence, also, the mighty 
control exercised by public opinion upon all men in positions it can 
reach ; hence the very terror entertained by most men of this public 
opinion, whereby they are even afraid to publicly avow and main- 
tain true convictions, if conflicting with the known views of commu- 
nity at large. Hence the eagerness wherewith most men aspire after 
the favorable opinion of the public, endeavoring to gain and attract 
it, in all possible kinds of ways ; and hence the intoxicating joy, 
seizing upon the community at large, and the various private and 
public means they resort to, for expressing and manifesting the same, 
when now and then, accidentally, but by unmistakable facts, they 
discover a true man or woman, who are unostentatiously engaged all 
the time, in doing all the good they can, not to their family only, but 
also to their neighbors, community, nation, and race. 

10. Now, as all men, without exception, even if not caring in 
equal degrees about the signs of external manifestation, can not help 
but place an indefinitely high value and estimate, upon the esteem, 
affection, and favor which community entertains towards them : 
society possesses in this principle, as soon as properly made availa- 
ble, a lever of infinite power, sufficient for removing all the evils that 
until now have been crushing it, and for drawing forth, on the other 
hand, out of the depth of man's will and nature, those precious 
fruits of divine virtue and excellence, as it were, like regular harvest 
crops, which hitherto have only constituted the rare and extraor- 
dinary exceptions. This lever, if duly applied, is capable of trans- 
forming, within a period of time so brief as almost supposed to be 
entirely insufficient, the ivhole aspect of human existence on earth, by 
changing those very forces in man into sources of inexhaustible 
blessings, ivhich, by an unnatural combination of conditions have 
hitherto only acted as his curse. Until now, community has been 



276 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

thinking, but never as yet, thinking sufficiently deep to fully under- 
stand and secure its own good. It never yet has sufficiently appre- 
ciated, that every man is a divine being, but chained absolutely to a 
certain number of creatural needs, wants, necessities, demanding, 
as laws of nature, their regular gratification, which, if not rationally 
provided, accorded, and placed within equitable reach of each indi- 
vidual by the social machinery of community itself : nature impels 
the man to disregard the artificial conventionalism of men, and 
possess itself by force or cunning of that, whereof it can or will, not do 
or be without. Now, as soon as men shall see and understand, what 
supreme love to God, and love to one's neighbor, as themselves, really 
demand of them, their intellects will become celestially, divinely 
clairvoyant, and they will all, impelled by affection, not only desire 
that no one of their fellow-beings shall any longer be poor and needy, 
but that poverty and indigence themselves shall, with all other things 
seducing and corrupting man, disappear, and prisons, penitentiaries, 
and gallows be rendered forever useless and unused, with the utmost 
practicable speed. For, men will then clearly see and feel, that 
every man who, by men-made laws and arrangements, is forced or 
seduced to transgress the laws of God and nature, and thus fall a 
victim to sin and crime, no matter in wliatever way, is the brother, 
child, grandchild, etc., of some one among us ; that he has a mother, 
whose heart can never cease Zoiwp' him ; but that he is the creature 
of a creative deity, which is absolute love itself. Hence the 
man, whom by irrational and imperfect social, domestic, educational, 
and other arrangements, we seduce and spoil, until he is the victim 
of vice, crime, and the hatred he entertains against his fellows and 
the shiftless and imperfect ways and means that have proven, so 
destructive to him : if thus lost to himself, is a loss to God and the 
human race, so infinite, that all the material wealth of the whole 
earth, can not even compare to it as a drop of water to the immeas- 
urable ocean. 

11. Until now, the religion of Christ has, in the most essential 
particular, been entirely and totally misunderstood in this, that it 
necessarily presupposes the existence of a perfect church, in which 
individual man may learn perfection. Christ demands divine per- 
fection ; demands it even of the individual man, but explicitly de- 
clares : " That man must have absolutely, at least, one man, with 



MATERIALS, ETC., FOR FORMING A SAVIOUR NATION. 277 

whom, as a true friend, he becomes one, in the love-spirit of Christ," 
Matt, xviii, 20 ; next, He declares : " That perfect union and love 
between His followers, is the only reliable sign and proof, that they 
are truly such ; capable of convincing the world of the fact," John, 
xvii, 21 ; finally, Christ declares : " I am the vine, ye are the 
branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth 
forth much fruit : for without me ye can do nothing." John xv, 5. 
Now, the man, who thus is in Christ, is at the same time in the 
community of the members, whereof Christ is the head. That com- 
munity is Christ's holy, visible body, or Church. It is only in, and 
as a member of, such true Church of Christ, that individual man 
can " do anything," that is, be educated to divine perfection in love, 
virtue, wisdom, and goodness : "As his Father in heaven himself 
is perfect." Matt. v. 48. As long as there is visibly no such perfect 
Church of Christ on earth, but only ecclesiastical human organiza- 
tions, under various names, all more or less imperfect, and none 
entirely and exclusively ruled by the spirit of Jesus : no individual 
man is capable of reaching "perfection," the end and object of his 
existence in that sense and degree, meant to be understood, as con- 
jointly pronounced, by " nature, reason, and religion," in Chap, xxiii. 
Therefore, we can not get the perfect part, until we get the perfect 
whole, to which such part belongs as a piece or member ; hence, we 
shall not get to see the perfect Christian, or divinely patriotic citizen, 
until the "new heaven and the new earth;" that is, the perfect Church 
of Christ, together with the divinely perfect state, shall, as the New 
Jerusalem, or the god-and-heaven-Yike-reorganization of human 
labor and society, have descended upon earth, like a beautiful bride. 
Eev. xxi, 1, 2. The religion of Christ realized, is, therefore, a 
perfect Church, state, and society, composed of individual members, 
embracing each other with sincere affection, which is perfect love, and 
thereby striving conjointly after all-sided perfection, the aim of each 
and all. 

12. But the accomplishment of that grandest of all possible 
facts, is before our door, knocking for admittance, as will be shown 
in its due time and place. Hence, the heavenly "householder" has 
sent out his summons in all directions, inviting laborers of every 
kind and description, to come and work in "Ms vineyard." Matt. 
xx, 1, 6. Now, then, let every laborer come along, and the strong 



278 THE TEMPLE OP TRUTH. 

with the weak, can each earn their heavenly "penny." The work 
to be finally accomplished, is the production of a " saviour nation," 
wherein the spirit of Christ, rules in every heart, and the wisdom 
of God in every head ; for, if that is realized, it will be " God's 
kingdom on earth," or the long-prayed for "millennium of love." 
Any fact, truth, knowledge, or thought calculated to assist in bring- 
ing about this devoutly to be wished for consummation, no matter 
from where, or by whomsoever contributed, will be graciously and 
gratefully accepted, and receive its due and appropriate place in the 
grand, progressively perfecting system, to which its nature shall 
entitle it. 

13. "Hitherto our nations," says, in substance, a living, noble 
writer and profound thinker,* " have been mobs." — " Our cities and com- 
munities are aimless." The main reason of this sad, but too true, 
fact, is to be found in our prevailing ignorance of man's and man- 
kind's destination, and the true principles of social organization. 
For, although all these termed civilized nations and communities 
call themselves, and profess to be, Christians, yet the main stamina 
and whole machinery of their social and political structure, is no 
other than the old heathen principle of compulsion, or brute force, 
added to an actual modernized modification of ancient feudalism. 
This modification consists in this, that, in past times, man ruled his 
iveaker fellow-man, and allotted to him, what amount of property 
and franchises he saw fit, by the direct operation of the physical 
sword ; that is, superior bodily or brute force; whereas, now, he rules 
him, not a whit less selfishly, by superior cunning, knowledge, or 
tJwught. Hence, as long as such state of things endures, life can 
not possibly assume traits more elevated, and features more exalted ; 
since the injured can not feel friendship and love for those that op- 
press them ; and they, who thus wrong their fellow-men, for the 
sake of paltry gain, can neither truly esteem or love one another, nor 
their victims, nor enjoy the sweet solace of divine approbation in 
their inmost mental chamber. As long, therefore, as we have not 
castes only, but also outcasts in our society, who are deprived of any 
real interest and stake in community, except what physical necessity 
itself perpetually and absolutely forces upon them : there is an open 

* K. W. Emerson. 



MATERIALS, ETC., FOR FORMING A SAVIOUR NATION. 279 

or silent state of warfare forever subsisting among us, which will 
not cease, until men determine to conclude peace, by obeying God, 
in truly loving their neighbor, as a friend and brother, by deed, even 
as themselves. 

14. As soon, however, as any single dozen of men shall com- 
mence unitedly to introduce such heavenly principles, in true 
sincerity into actual practice, the great problem will be as good as 
solved ; for that number, as the active leaven, or the living mustard 
seed, will suffice celestially to revolutionize society almost with elec- 
trical speed. F 'or joy as well as truth, increases in magnitude, inten- 
sity and power, with the number in, and by, which it acts. As 
soon then as our dozen true patriots have found one another, they 
will constitute to each a society so sweet, as to become, like the par- 
takers of Pentecost, intoxicated by its heavenly nectar ; and, like an 
army inspired by irresistible enthusiasm, ran from one victory to 
another, until by the conquest of mankind, they prove to the world, 
that true love is omnipotent. Everyway man gained for the great 
truth, is an increase of power, which, proportionally, increases the 
means, the zeal and the efficiency of propagation. In a brief time 
they will be numerous, strong, and able enough, to make a sys- 
tematic application of scientific power and labor-saving machinery 
of every sort and description. No sooner is that accomplished, 
than they will be able to vacate and empty whole towns and cities 
of their pauper, indigent, and unemployed inhabitants, placing them, 
as partners, in permanent, pleasant homes, attractive and easy 
occupations, and by a system of education, unknown at present to 
science or the world, reclaim the neglected mind of the uneducated 
laboring adult, within an incredibly brief time, for a henceforth 
regular progress, in intellectual, ethical, and practical perfection. Or, 
wherever cities and towns offer opportunities and co-operation, in 
the glorious, humanitary work, the unemployed need not be re- 
moved, but may, for their own, and the benefit of the place and its 
inhabitants, be instituted into proper employment on the spot. 

15. No sooner will our patriotic, cosmopolitan Christians have 
got thus far, when the means at their control will rapidly enable 
them to convert their fellow-men in large numbers, so as actually 
soon to transform the nation into a saviour nation in sober earnest. 
For, the simple presence of Christ's love in the hearts of a conjoint 



ZbO THE TEMPLE OF TKUTH. 

number of men, and the consistent practice and application of the 
same, is heaven realized on earth, and the science or theory thereof, 
may he fitly called : a lee-line to heaven, or a railroad to paradise 
regained. And where men see heaven exist "before their eyes, it is 
easy to convert them to it. For, it is nothing hut the sheerest igno- 
rance of God, themselves, and the true nature of all things, by 
which Christ-professing mankind hitherto, have had to remain in 
that state of semi-barbarism, which they call civilization ; but which, 
closely scrutinized, and relative conditions taken into due account, 
produces a richer crop of darker deeds and more atrocious crimes, 
than probably the most barbarous and least cultivated people on the 
globe. All men know, no matter how transiently and imperfectly, 
the nature of joy. They all are as greedy for and after it, as the 
starving man for the morsel of bread. Now, if men understood their 
best interests, their constant study would be, not, as now, how to 
cause one another the utmost trouble, vexation, grief, and harm ; but, 
how each one could produce for all the rest, the greatest, best, most 
durable and exquisite joys. The more and the longer they would 
study this science of Ood and practice this art of heaven : the 
deeper all nature would disclose to them its rich, concealed secrets ; 
the more luminously-shining would their own intellect discover the 
infinite treasures of knowledge and truth, as yet hidden, unknown 
to man, in the wondrous being of God and man himself ; and the 
more would one vast ocean of celestial friendship, heavenly joy, and 
godlike beatitude, melt the numerous millions of the whole nation, 
into one heart and one soul, which in the fullness and exuber- 
ance of its ineffable extasy and happiness, would have no greater 
concern than, with utmost feasible speed, to make all mankind par- 
ticipants thereof. It is well known that one single true friend yields 
to man's heart an enjoyment so rich and siveet, that hardly any joy 
known to man can surpass it : how great then and intense would 
the happiness of man be, if he knew himself the passionately beloved 
and loving friend, of the twenty-five to thirty or more millions of 
men of a whole nation f 

16. Man is created in heaven. Hence his undying aspiration after 
it, and all the features belonging to it. He wants order, beauty, 
reality, stability, in all around him ; hence chaos, disorder, ugliness, 
semblance, shams, naturally and deservedly provoke his abhorrence. 



MATERIALS, ETC., FOR FORMING A SAVIOUR NATION. 281 

Every man, therefore, if permitted to enjoy an unperverted course 
of development from the innocency of childhood to the full vigor 
and mental light of mature manhood, would, if aided by his fellow- 
men, as the social contract, underlying human existence, really 
implies and demands, build for himself a miniature heaven, differing 
in many of its features, from that of all other men. But as the 
present so-called social state of man is, in its true nature, an anti- 
social and ivarring state of existence, men not only receive no aid 
from society itself, but its members are, in a great proportion, like 
madmen, ferocious beasts, hallucinated demons, openly and clan- 
destinely engaged not only in reciprocally tearing to pieces each 
other's heaven, but like fiends, mutually destroying even themselves. 
All these, and a vast number of other evils, the /ora?-apparatus called 
government, which society now, at prodigious expense, maintains as 
a regulating machinery, to keep itself in some sort of order, is en- 
tirely unable to prevent. 

17. But, as soon as you make the nation, as the generative pro- 
genitor of its children, what by nature, reason, and religion, it 
really is designed to be : One vast domestic and political copartner- 
ship, for one universal and absolute purpose, including a ivhole ocean 
of ends : all your evils will disappear, as if blown away. For you 
will have no longer one single man in community, whose direct 
interest it is not that every evil should vanish the sooner the better. 
And as thereby society ceases to sacrifice and immolate human vic- 
tims, to false arrangements built upon erroneous notions : the amount 
of new forces thereby gained will swell the increase of its indus- 
trial productiveness so prodigiously, that there will be no end to the 
abundance of wealth. This is in part fulfilling, in a natural way, 
what Christ has promised, to the striving after God's kingdom, 
Matt, vi, 33. For, as soon as a nation of men becomes just towards 
all its members, and determines to take a loving care and concern in 
their welfare, such state thereby becomes a true " commonwealth," 
or actual partnership, wherein every one of its nm'mal human 
beings, has a certain portion of stock, property, or interest, which, 
in connection with his or her sphere of action in such community, 
is at all times sufficient to secure existence, and protect against 
want. Next, as community has a direct interest in the augmenta- 
tion of its industrial productibility, since its true external power 



282 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

depends thereon ; and, as its productiveness consists in the aggre- 
gate producing capacity of all its individual members, which, by- 
assistance and insurance from the whole, to each may indefinitely 
be increased in various infallible ways : it is community's paramount 
interest, to bring this as speedily about as ever possible, by furnish- 
ing tools (with materials and needed information, where lacking), 
to those who can handle them. From the moment that such ar- 
rangements are perfected, crimes and depredations will in such com- 
munity cease; since the motive to the same is removed, and an 
opposite motive to promote the good of every man at all times, 
actively planted in its place. 

18. All the evils found in any community, are defects or injuries 
of a threefold nature : mental, moral, and corporeal, a.) The mental 
defect, is an iDtellectual damage of injury, suffered by community 
through its afflicted members, consisting in the want, the weakness, 
or the false direction of their intellectual powers, that is : in igno- 
rance, stupidity and error, b.) The moral defect, or the psychical 
damage or injury of man or a people consists in the want, the 
weakness, and wrong direction of their will or volition, that is : in 
immorality, vice, and crime, c.) The corporeal defect, and bodily 
damage or injury of man or a people, consists in the want, the 
weakness, and false application of their bodily forces, originating 
either from the ignorance or errors of the intellect, or the weakness 
and wrong direction of volition, and producing, at all times, as 
legitimate fruits and inevitable effects, indolence, disease, said poverty. 
Now, all these evils flow, as their sources, from certain defects 
existing in the living machinery of our domestic, social, and public 
institutions, as now framed and subsisting. A source of that kind, 
from which permanently an evil flows, indicates the commission of a 
radical wrong, perpetrated by community against its own good, and 
the damage and pain of the evil is the punishment inflicted by nature's 
lo.ws for their infringement, as also designed to induce and enforce 
measures for the evil's removal by proper reform. For, if you want 
to dry up a stream, you must remove its headwaters, as the sources 
from which it flows. Thus, nature itself forces mankind from the 
imperfect towards the more perfect, on the one hand, by the effects 
of pain and loss she attaches to the false and wrong ; and, on the 
other, by those, not only of freedom from the evil, but also addi- 



MATERIALS, ETC., FOR FORMING A SAVIOUR NATION. 283 

tionally, the positive enjoyment of the pleasure, joy, and increase 
of means and power, ever connected with that which in itself is 
true, good, and hence correct and right, in the eye of reason and God. 
Hence, there is no stability in imperfect conditions and institutions ; 
one that is letter, gradually presses the worse one to the wall, until 
itself has finally to surrender the space to the best one possible, which 
is forever to keep it. 

19. Now, of all countries existing upon this globe, and of all 
forms or government that men have ever tried to govern themselves 
by, upon earth, there are none which so evidently have by Providence 
designedly been prepared, for the purpose of realizing a saviour na- 
tion, as the land and the institutions of these United States. The 
former is large and fertile enough to accommodate and sustain 
almost, if not fully, one half of the present entire population of 
the globe ; and the latter, having made the people themselves the 
permanent depository of their own sovereign power, have therein 
preserved a door, widely thrown open, for the introduction of all and 
any improvements, surely not excluding the possibly best, which these 
sovereigns may possess the wisdom to see, and the virtue and pa- 
triotism to demand introducing. Hence, even a whole host of 
various defects, which such people may have inherited from the 
past, and which to remedy, neither time nor opportunity have yet 
been favorable, will, when that proper time eventually arrives, be 
overcome by conquering even difficulties apparently insurmountable. 
And as this youngest among the nations, is placed upon a new con- 
tinent, lying amidst the great oceans that separate the two extremes 
of the ancient world : that very geographical position, so easily 
permitting access to, and speedy inteixourse with, all countries of the 
globe, is beyond question a stubborn fact of pi'oplietic significance. 
For the same nation which, first, by embracing and introducing into 
its midst, of Christ's whole love and full purpose, thereby establishing 
a perfect peace and heavenly friendship among all the members of its 
body, and thus making itself a saving nation of all its own ; that 
very nation will thereby likewise become the model, and saviour 
nation of the "rest of mankind," by the double action, as well of its 
power, as of its transcending example. Tor a nation which becomes 
so divinely wise, as to aspire through all its citizens and agencies, and 
with the whole immense power at its control, after consummate 
24 



284 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

perfection in all its men, things, and institutions ; thereby makes 
itself: " The city that is set on a hill; hence the light of the world, 
which can not be hid." Matt, v, 14. 

20. Now, if ever there was a country, led " onward" by a " mani- 
fest destiny," that country is America, — the States of this Union. 
Hence " Young America" is ambitious, which is right and proper, 
that it should be, as it feels itself "beaconed onward" by a grand 
though as yet not clearly understood, destination. If now the 
young giant, at one leap, clears all the inferior objects that court his 
ambition, saying to them all : " I will none of you," but "my" and my 
country's glory, shall simply consist in this, that all nations and 

MEN, SHALL LOOK WITH JOY AND GRATITUDE UPON US :" then men 

may prepare for beholding a spectacle upon earth, which to enjoy 
even the immortals in superior mansions will feel eager. For then 
we shall see a race gifted with great grasp of intellect, endowed with 
a power of execution of rare elasticity and energy, in possession of 
means, sufficient for all purposes, upon which they may resolve : 
combine these and all their other forces, for the accomplishment of 
the grandest, most glorious purpose, that ever expanded the bosom of na- 
tion or man. a.) First, like the man, Luke xv, 4, they will wander 
about among themselves, endeavoring to find and reclaim every 
sheep that, in one way or other, has become lost. This will en- 
kindle an affection and friendship between man and man, as that, 
existing between the members of the most affectionate families. 
Thereby every man, will feel it his duty to be "his brother's keeper," 
guarding him against harm, poverty, misery, doing all to make him 
prosperous, happy, joyous, wise, good, and perfect, and in brief, be 
to him, in reality, a brother and friend, loving him, as his own self. 
To do this the more effectually, will require the mastery over " the 
science of, or leading to, perfection," which every man, as much as he 
shall need thereof for his case, can acquire without any difficulty, 
by simply surrendering himself to be taught by the, Comforter, 
Holy Ghost or Spirit of Truth, for He will lead every man, who 
seeks and desires the truth, into all truth. Johnxiv, 26. This opera- 
tion of internal love toward all its own members, will cement every 
private particle of humanity so firmly and closely to the body politic, 
as to make it one unitary mass, in sentiment, feeling, and purpose, ' 
in aspiration, striving, and action, b.) Next, having now in their 



MATERIALS, ETC., FOR FORMING A gAVIOUR NATION. 285 

dealings with one another, firmly habituated themselves to act, 
unswervingly by the principles of unbending honesty, honor, and rec- 
titude, they will carry that habit, and in it the external form of tbeir 
love of truth and man, into all their dealings with other nations 
and the citizens or subjects thereof. They will by this, iu the first 
instance, gain and secure the confidence of them all, which will ena- 
ble them to maintain an increasing commercial intercourse with every 
one, thereby disposing of the accumulating masses of stock resulting 
from their steadily increasing productiveness, and thus necessarily 
continue to grow in wealth and the means of power. 

21. Meanwhile the combined^ozyer of the national intellect, sup- 
ported by the boundless power of the nation's means, will be most 
assiduously engaged, in working out the eternal science of heaven, in 
all its national, humanitary, and cosmical features, embracing, with 
all the known results of definite science, the whole ramifications of 
mankind's knowledge, aspiration, aim, and destiny, into one grand 
all-encircling system ; which, thus encycling all the truths now in 
'possession of men, of whatever sort, will, therefore at once be readily 
and joyously embraced by every thinking and searching intellect; 
inasmuch as it presents all requisite tools, means, and materials to 
institute and prosecute a regular process of progressing discovery in 
every direction of the boundless sea of the yet unknown. At the 
head of that system will stand, as a beacon, guiding every mariner 
on life's ocean, rearing its eternal light-flashing cap to the throne 
of God, that infinite, divine idea, which, heretofore, and until 
now, did dimly and unconsciously, but henceforth shall clearly and 
consciously, with ethereal fire inspire, enthuze, and expand the bosom 
of all America, to- wit : " The realization of the ultimate 

PERFECTION AND HAPPINESS OF ALL MANKIND," by and through 

America, as the God-appointed saviour nation of the whole race. 
a.) As every thing that has real being, discloses, in various degrees, 
the triune divine attribute of absolute beauty, truth, and goodness, 
which, when actively realized in any object, constitute its perfection, 
from which happiness emanates as an effect ; the theory of the sys- 
tem, will now have to point out and define, in what : 1.) Indi- 
vidual, domestic, and social ; 2.) Political, national, and cosmical ; 
3.) Physical, psychical, and intellectual ; and, 4.) iEsthetical, 
ethical, and religious perfection and happiness respectively consist. 



286 THE TEMPLE OF TKUTH. 

5.) Next come the practical application and introduction into 
actual life of the system itself. This requires men wlio know 
heaven, by having it livingly active in their bosom,, It consists in 
knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, controlled by divine love 
and goodness. As heaven is a universal principle, present latently or 
actively, in some degree or other, in every bosom, he, who becomes 
the inventor or discoverer of its ineffable wonders in his own breast, 
thereby obtains the telescope to see and understand, what rejoicingly 
or painingly passes and transpires in the hearts and souls of human 
beings, and thereby the wisdom to teach all who are sincere, in a 
brief time, the divine secret of godlike government of the same. 
Teaching, is also learning, leading to greater and more perfect 
insight. Now, where every step of a science proves itself, by the 
most glorious and grateful sensations, to body, soul, and intellect 
of man, that it is all an absolute keality, as the science of heaven, 
as soon as practically applied, forever does : it is easy to perceive, 
that its learners will quickly grasp it ; that they will multiply beyond 
number and count ; that the conjoint action of the vast number, will 
soon realize the boundless benefits and happiness for all; that, hence, 
of actual opposition there can be none ; that all misery will speedily 
vanish from their presence, and continue to do so, until universal 
redemption and happiness have been achieved. As all these grand 
achievements are, in reality, fruits of a system forming the educa- 
tional method of eternity, it is proper to take a closer look at : 

I. The effects of true education upon, and for, the individual man 
himself. — The man whose forces of body, volition, and intellect, 
have been duly developed and educated by proper training and 
discipline, is a free, vigorous, healthy, and independent being ; who, 
at all times, and everywhere, and with but little trouble is capable of 
procuring for himself, the means of his own support. For, "in every 
branch of labor, be it of whatever kind it may, he is expert, indus- 
trious, persevering. In every situation and kind of employment, 
he will, by his general expertness and all-conquering patience, soon 
make himself at home. His habits and mode of life, being simple 
and natural, render his body strong, and his health vigorous and 
tough. His moral and amiable course of conduct will gain for him 
the respect and attachment of his fellow-men, and will, wherever he 
be, procure him a sphere of action. In the application of his means, 



MATERIALS, ETC., FOR FORMING A SAVIOUR NATION. 287 

you will find him prudent, intelligent, wise. In situations of peril 
and danger, he exhibits not only presence of mind, courage, and self- 
possession, but you also see him armed with the faculties to save his 
own, or the life of others, and to defend himself and them efficiently 
against all manner of unforeseen aggressions. In trying positions he 
will not fall a prey to despair ; for hope, and resolution, with resig- 
nation, will keep him erect. In fortune as in misfortune you will 
find him a man, respecting the dignity of human nature in all, and 
never forgetting that as a man, he has sacred duties to perform to- 
wards the whole human race. His industry, economy, and frugality, 
with his many other qualifications and his knowledge, will, in the 
end, not fail to procure him the means, enabling him to serve his 
fellow-men in a thousand-fold manner, and thus become useful and a 
benefactor to them, where otherwise he never might have been so. 
And his warm, noble heart, glowing with the motives of virtue and 
goodness, impels him incessantly to do good to men, even where and 
when sometimes the purity of his motives and aims is not properly 
appreciated or even misunderstood. For, it is neither gratitude nor 
honor from men, that constitute the end and aim of his endeavors ; 
his reward is greater, nearer, and more certain. He carries it within 
his own bosom, from whence no storm can sweep it, and no outward 
fate deprive him of it. In short, place such, man wherever you will, 
and everywhere he will do honor to human nature, and by his own 
actions command the respect of all men. Now let us examine : 

II. The effects of a perfect education upon the family. — A man 
educated in such manner, will be a dutiful and grateful son, a faithful 
husband, and a providing, exemplary, and tender fatJier of a family. 
His intelligence, knowledge, manners, and habits will gain and 
secure him in a high degree, the esteem, the affection and confidence 
of all around him. They will love him, imitate and emulate his 
course, and cheerfully obey his word and counsel ; and in this obe- 
dience contract the habit of obeying the laws of community when 
entering themselves into active life. As the whole house knows, 
and is convinced that such father designs the welfare of the whole 
and every member in it, and, by his maturer experience and clearer 
and greater knowledge is enabled to effect this object more securely 
and certainly than any one of them ; they manifest their conviction 



288 THE TEMPLE OP TRUTH. 

by a willing, cheerful, co-operating obedience. From this proceed 
unity and harmony in all the movements of the whole family. 
Thereby every labor, work, or enterprise proceeds with ease and 
speed, and is blessed with result and success. For courage and cheer- 
fulness render everz/ employment easy ; but morosity and aversion 
make the easiest thing a burden. The sagacious prudence, economy, 
and persevering industry of such head of the family, which impart 
themselves to every member thereof, bring blessings and success 
upon all their actions and doings ; and their united exertions, as 
well in as out of the house, are ultimately crowned with wealth, 
abundance, and independence. The children raised in such family 
circle, appropriate to themselves the virtues and habits of their pa- 
rents, and will, when becoming heads of families themselves, trans- 
plant the acquired good qualities, in a similar manner, to their 
own offspring. Every community consists of single families. Im- 
agine to yourselves a whole state of families thus educated : a'nd 
you have got the consummated and realized beau-ideal of the 
terrestrial happiness of an entire nation, or whole people. Now, let 
us cast a nearer glance at : 

III. The effects of such education, thus made visible in the condition 
of a state. — The man thus educated is a good, a useful, a patriotic 
citizen. His example as well as his actions are beneficial to commu- 
nity. And as every member of his family follows the illustrious 
example of its head : every one of them is a positive benefit to the 
commonwealth. As the man thus moving on upon the path of per- 
fection, can only, with the love of his whole heart, embrace a 
state and a Church that promote and lead to all-sided perfection : 
he will everywhere endeavor to infuse his patriotic zeal for the 
welfare of the whole, and the spreading of virtuous piety in every 
bosom. Thus it is now self-evident, that the perfect individual, as 
man and woman, is the first and indispensable condition to the per- 
fect, prosperous, and happy family ; that, as society, community, a 
people, nation, or state, as well as Church, being composed of a 
given number of individuals and families, existing under one and 
the same political or ecclesiastical organization : they can only be 
perfect and happy, in proportion to the perfection and happiness exist- 
ing in these its individual and domestic elements, and the capacity 



MATERIALS, ETC., FOR FORMING A SAVIOUR NATION. 289 

inherent in such organization itself, for promoting the perpetual pro- 
gress towards higher perfection and prosperity of the wliole state or 
Church, and all its individual members. 

22. Now, after the people of this Union, shall have determined 
to form themselves into a saviour nation, and made good their claim 
to this divine appellation, by the reconciliation and universal peace 
introduced between all the individuals and families composing com- 
munity, as also through the systemized perseverance by which 
private, domestic, and national perfection and happiness are pursued : 
what will be the natural sequel and inevitable consequence of that 
highly hopeful state of things ? a.) As by the application of scientific 
power and labor-saving machinery, guided and directed by a system 
of science and art, more consummate than the world ever saw, the 
productiveness of the country in every branch of useful industry, will 
be enhanced to a degree beyond all calculation : there is here a 
source of wealth and power literally without limits and end. The 
extensive commercial intercourse with all nations on the globe, 
thereby rendered necessary and lucrative, will offer constant oppor- 
tunities, to show " America and the American character " to all these 
people in their true and natural traits. Nor will there occasions 
be lacking to befriend and serve these people both by the kind and 
generous action of private individuals, as well as by those of public 
agents, acting in the name, and on behalf of the whole nation. There- 
by the whole world will soon intimately know, not only America's 
great and tremendous power, but also become convinced, that the 
young giant nation, with divine pride, disdains making any other than 
the most just, beneficent and magnanimous uses of its formidable 
capacities ; and that to keep on friendly terms with it and its citi- 
zens, requires only to do what is right and just, b.) After America 
shall thus, for a time, have been ivatched by the Argus eyes of a 
whole world, and is, with wonder and admiration, discovered to be 
perfectly faithful to her exalted character of a saviour nation, both in 
her measures of internal and external policy ; the venerating surprise, 
unlimited confidence, and affectionate enthusiasm, irresistibly seizing 
all thinking nations of the earth in her favor, will be the occasion to 
cause "annexation" to, or "admission" into, the powerful confeder- 
ation of States, to become the ruling watchword of the day, tho 
age, and the tvorld, until accomplished. For it is expressly prophe- 



290 THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH. 

sied, by the highest authority known to man : "And there shall he 
onefold and one Shepherd." John x, 16. It is likewise prophesied : 
" They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and tlieir spears into 
pruning hooks : nation sliall not lift up sword against nation, neither 
shall they learn war any more" Isaiah ii, 4 ; Micah iv, 3. c.) Now, 
by the arrival of the time above referred to, the world will have 
become sufficiently wise to perceive and understand, that no sooner 
has a nation obtained admittance as a co-or sister- State, into the 
American Union, when both the above prophecies, respecting the 
permanent relationship of these States among one another, have 
become fulfilled to the very letter. For they then are all in one 
mighty fold, under one self-chosen Shepherd, have retained all their at- 
tributes of sovereignty, of any real use and value, and surrendered 
only, among some unessential others, the pernicious and destruct- 
ive one, of declaring war, and " secundem artem " (i. e. scientifically), 
mutually destroying one another en masse. Hence every new State 
annexed absolutely cuts off that proportionate amount of the possible 
future chance for war ; and the final result of the process, rendered 
eventually inevitable by the conjoint interests of men and nations, 
will be first : ilie ultimate annexation of the whole globe, and thereby 
the further impossibility of all and any war ; and, next : the reign- 
ing of everlasting peace between all the private citizens of each 
State and the world, and between all the then United States of 
the whole earth. Then one vast chorus, chiming harmoniously, in 
strains of gratitude, happiness, and joy, will forever ascend to 
heaven, all around the globe, chanting enrapturedly : 

By God's great power and uncreated hand, 

Rose Love's and Freedom's temple on earth's happy land; 

And may the Almighty guard its heavenly dome, 

As long as sunbeams dance, and planets roam. 



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